UK Offence Report

Processing of information provided or accessed in connection with registration under section 9ZA

paragraph 37B(3) of SCHEDULE of The Representation of the People (Electoral Registration without Applications) (Pilot Scheme) (Wales) Regulations 2025

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

3 A person who discloses information in breach of paragraph

2 is guilty of an offence and liable—

a on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding one year, or

a fine, or to both;

b on summary conviction, to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding the general limit in

a magistrates court, or to

a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or to both.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
contravening a requirement of the instrument
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach paragraph 37B(3) of SCHEDULE?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. On these words an offence is committed where a person discloses information in breach of paragraph 2.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Representation of the People (Electoral Registration without Applications) (Pilot Scheme) (Wales) Regulations 2025, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
1 year

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland; imprisonment expressed as the general limit in a magistrates' court (Sentencing Act 2020 s.224(1A)); 12 months as at 2025-01-17. Note the limit is keyed to the date of conviction, while the standard scale is keyed to the date of the offence, so a single date is an approximation here; imprisonment expressed as the general limit in a magistrates' court (Sentencing Act 2020 s.224(1A)); 12 months as at 2025-01-17. Note the limit is keyed to the date of conviction, while the standard scale is keyed to the date of the offence, so a single date is an approximation here; imprisonment expressed as the general limit in a magistrates' court (Sentencing Act 2020 s.224(1A)); 12 months as at 2025-01-17. Note the limit is keyed to the date of conviction, while the standard scale is keyed to the date of the offence, so a single date is an approximation here; imprisonment expressed as the general limit in a magistrates' court (Sentencing Act 2020 s.224(1A)); 12 months as at 2025-01-17. Note the limit is keyed to the date of conviction, while the standard scale is keyed to the date of the offence, so a single date is an approximation here.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
15 January 2025
In force from
17 January 2025
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

As part of the introduction of electoral registration without applications, under the changes made by the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Act 2024 (“the 2024 Act”), these Regulations establish a pilot scheme for the purposes of testing, in specified areas and for a specified period, how the changes brought in by Chapter 2 of Part 1 of the 2024 Act (electoral registration without applications) will work in practice. In accordance with section 72(5) of the 2024 Act, the provisions of Chapter 2 of Part 1 of that Act may not be commenced until pilot provision of a kind described in section 5(4) of that Act have been made in Regulations and a report by the Electoral Commission into the operation of those Regulations has been sent to the Welsh Ministers and laid before Senedd Cymru. Regulation 2 sets out the areas in relation to which these Regulations apply. Regulation 4 and paragraph 1 of the Schedule modify the Representation of the People Act 1983 so that it has effect during the specified period (provided for in regulation 4(3)) as if section 3 and subsections (1) to (6) and (8) of section 4 of the 2024 Act were in force. Regulation 5 specifies the objective of these pilot Regulations as required by section 6(1) of the 2024 Act. Regulation 6 specifies the date before which the Electoral Commission is required to send a copy of its report on the pilot scheme under sections 6(1)(b) and 17(5)(a) of the 2024 Act to the Welsh Ministers. The modifications result in there being a new registration duty on electoral registration officers to register eligible local government electors in Wales without the requirement for an application and to take specified steps in relation to this duty, including a requirement to notify in writing persons due to be registered, informing them of the new duty and their options with respect to it. Persons who receive this notice will have a 60-day notice period during which they may choose to exercise the right to opt out of registration without applications or to consider applying for anonymous registration. If at the end of that period a person has not taken either of these options and remains entitled to be registered then they must be added to the register. Paragraphs 2 to 5 of the Schedule modify the Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations 2001, to prescribe additional steps which electoral registration officers will be required to undertake in connection with the new registration duty. This includes requiring the disclosure of information to decide whether a person is eligible to be included in the register for the purpose of section 9ZA. The Welsh Ministers have, in the development of this pilot scheme, consulted with such stakeholders as they consider appropriate in accordance with section 6(5) of the 2024 Act, including those they deem to represent vulnerable groups. Regulatory Impact Assessment The Welsh Ministers’ Code of Practice on the carrying out of Regulatory Impact Assessments was considered in relation to these Regulations. As a result, a regulatory impact assessment has been prepared as to the likely costs and benefits of complying with these Regulations. A copy can be obtained from Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ and is published on www.gov.wales.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person is “guilty of an offence”
Confidence
0.92 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source