Criminal Offences Gateway Form
This form should be sent to OffencesGateway@justice.gsi.gov.uk
Your completed form should be accompanied by the following:
 your draft legislation;
 a justice impact test (http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/justice-impact-test.htm);
 the policy summary sheet of your impact assessment;
 (for statutory instruments) your explanatory memorandum.
Section 1: General Information
Legislation title
Department
Policy lead and contact details
Legal lead and contact details
Bill team manager and contact details (for primary legislation)
For non-ministerial departments or agencies, the ministerial department responsible
for the legislation and contact details for the lawyer
Section 2: Timing
Gateway clearance is not required prior to publication of a consultation paper, but should be
obtained before collective Cabinet Committee clearance is sought.
Date by which a response is needed (if less than 4 weeks, please provide reasons)
EU and other international obligations (please provide implementation deadlines, if
relevant)
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Risks (please provide details if your timetable is driven by particular risks, for example legal
challenge or infraction proceedings)
Introduction/laying date (please specify if you are working towards a particular date)
Section 3: Background
The information in this section will provide the broad context for your proposals.
Current position (please provide a brief summary of the background to your proposals)
Policy aim (please summarise the broad aims of your legislation, including any particular
drivers such as EU or other international obligations, case law or a particular event, with links
where relevant)
Public commitments (please provide links to relevant public commitments, for example
press notices or Ministerial statements)
Public consultation (please provide a link to your consultation document, if relevant)
Collective Cabinet clearance (if you have already written for collective Cabinet clearance,
please provide details and copies of correspondence including from the Ministry of Justice)
Wider context (please provide details if your proposals are linked to other statutory
instruments/proposals, whether already in place or planned, or if they are part of a wider
policy review)
Repeals and consolidation (please provide a brief summary if your legislation will repeal
and/or consolidate existing legislation)
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Section 4: Enforcement
The information in this section will provide an overview of your enforcement proposals,
including your broad justification for relying on the criminal law. Non-criminal enforcement
includes (but is not limited to) civil fines, stop notices, improvement notices, withdrawal or
suspension of licences and informal advice.
Alternatives to civil sanctions and criminal offences (have you considered whether
alternatives to civil sanctions or criminal offences would be sufficient for enforcement
purposes? For example: the withdrawal of permissions within a permitting regime, use of
disciplinary powers, judicial review?)
Civil sanctions (have you considered civil sanctions, for example civil fines or improvement
notices?)
Hierarchy of sanctions (if your regime contains non-criminal enforcement mechanisms,
please explain how they relate to the powers to prosecute, for example whether criminal
prosecutions will be limited – by the legislation itself or by prosecution guidance – to a failure
to comply with non-criminal sanctions or to serious or persistent breaches of the obligations)
Existing criminal law (have you considered whether the existing criminal law would be
sufficient (see Annex A for examples of generally applicable criminal offences)?)
Reasons for relying on the criminal law (please set out any particular reasons for relying
on the criminal law to enforce your regime, for example serious risks arising out of a failure to
comply with parts of the regime, international obligations to create offences, cross-border
enforcement issues, resources. Please provide case studies to support your justification for
creating offences if available)
Repeals and consolidation (please clarify whether your proposals will reduce the number
and/or scope of existing offences)
Gateway clearance (if you have previously obtained gateway clearance for related
proposals, please provide the title and subject matter of the legislation concerned and the
approximate date of gateway clearance)
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Section 5: Criminal Offences
Gateway clearance is needed for entirely new criminal offences, repeals and re-enactments, and extensions of existing criminal liability.
For each offence you propose, please list (i) the conduct and mental elements of the offence (actus reus and mens rea), (ii) any defences and,
if relevant, (iii) how it extends the scope of existing offences.
Location of
offence in
your draft
legislation
(eg article
3(2))
Details of proposed offence
Justification (why the offence is a
proportionate response to the problem
identified)
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Mode of trial (summary only,
triable either way, indictable
only) and
Maximum penalty (with
details of precedents, if
relevant)
Annex A: Generally applicable criminal offences
Fraud and False Statements
Act
Offence
Maximum penalty
Section 2
Fraud Act 2006
Fraud by false representation
A person is in breach of this section if he
(a) dishonestly makes a false representation, and
(b) intends, by making the representation–
(i) to make a gain for himself or another, or
(ii) to cause loss to another or to expose another to
a risk of loss
Triable either way
On summary conviction:
6 months’ imprisonment
and/or statutory maximum
fine
On indictment:
10 years’ imprisonment
and/or a fine
Section 4
Fraud Act 2006
Fraud by abuse of position
A person is in breach of this section if he–
(a) occupies a position in which he is expected to
safeguard, or not to act against, the financial
interests of another person,
(b) dishonestly abuses that position, and
(c) intends, by means of the abuse of that position–
(i) to make a gain for himself or another, or
(ii) to cause loss to another or to expose another to
a risk of loss
Triable either way
On summary conviction:
6 months’ imprisonment
and/or statutory maximum
fine
On indictment:
10 years’ imprisonment
and/or a fine
Section 19
Theft Act 1968
False statements by company directors, etc
Triable either way
Where an officer of a body corporate or
7 years’ imprisonment
unincorporated association (or person purporting to
act as such), with intent to deceive members or
creditors of the body corporate or association about
its affairs, publishes or concurs in publishing a
written statement or account which to his
knowledge is or may be misleading, false or
deceptive in a material particular…
Section 5
Perjury Act 1911
False statutory declarations and other false
Triable either way
statements without oath
2 years’ imprisonment
If any person knowingly and wilfully makes
and/or a fine
(otherwise than on oath) a statement false in a
material particular, and the statement is made–
(a) in a statutory declaration; or
(b) in an abstract, account, balance sheet, book,
certificate, declaration, entry, estimate, inventory,
notice, report, return, or other document which he
is authorised or required to make, attest, or verify,
by any public general Act of Parliament for the time
being in force; or
(c) in any oral declaration or oral answer which he
is required to make by, under, or in pursuance of
any public general Act of Parliament for the time
being in force,
he shall be guilty…
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Act
Offence
Maximum penalty
Section 6
Perjury Act 1911
False declarations, etc, to obtain registration,
Triable either way
etc, for carrying on a vocation
2 years’ imprisonment
If any person–
and/or a fine
(a) procures or attempts to procure himself to be
registered on any register or roll kept under or in
pursuance of any public general Act of Parliament
for the time being in force of persons qualified by
law to practise any vocation or calling; or
(b) procures or attempts to procure a certificate of
the registration of any person on any such register
or roll as aforesaid,
by wilfully making or producing or causing to be
made or produced either verbally or in writing, any
declaration, certificate, or representation which he
knows to be false or fraudulent, he shall be guilty…
Section 1
Forgery and
Counterfeiting Act
1981
Forgery
A person is guilty of forgery if he makes a false
instrument, with the intention that he or another
shall use it to induce somebody to accept it as
genuine, and by reason of so accepting it to do or
not to do some act to his own or any other person's
prejudice
Triable either way
On summary conviction:
6 months’ imprisonment
and/or statutory maximum
fine
On indictment:
10 years’ imprisonment
Section 3
Forgery and
Counterfeiting Act
1981
Using a false instrument
It is an offence for a person to use an instrument
which is, and which he knows or believes to be,
false, with the intention of inducing somebody to
accept it as genuine, and by reason of so accepting
it to do or not to do some act to his own or any
other person's prejudice
Triable either way
On summary conviction:
6 months’ imprisonment
and/or statutory maximum
fine
On indictment:
10 years’ imprisonment
Failing to provide information/assistance when required to do so
Act
Section 3
Fraud Act 2006
Offence
Maximum penalty
Fraud by failing to disclose information
A person is in breach of this section if he–
(a) dishonestly fails to disclose to another person
information which he is under a legal duty to
disclose, and
(b) intends, by failing to disclose the information–
(i) to make a gain for himself or another, or
(ii) to cause loss to another or to expose another
to a risk of loss
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Triable either way
On summary conviction:
6 months’ imprisonment
and/or statutory
maximum fine
On indictment:
10 years’ imprisonment
and/or a fine
Information offence
Act
Section 55
Data Protection
Act 1988
Offence
Maximum penalty
Unlawful obtaining etc of personal data
A person must not knowingly or recklessly,
without the consent of the data controller–
(a) obtain or disclose personal data or the
information contained in personal data, or
(b) procure the disclosure to another person of the
information contained in personal data
NB this offence is limited – see s.55(2)
Triable either way
On summary conviction
Fine not exceeding
statutory maximum
On indictment
A fine
Obstructing an Officer/Authorised Person
Act
Offence
Maximum penalty
Common law
Assault
Intentionally or recklessly causing another to
apprehend immediate and unlawful violence
Battery
Intentionally or recklessly applying unlawful force
Summary only
6 months’ imprisonment
and/or statutory maximum
fine
Offences Against
the Person Act
1861
Section 47: assault occasioning actual bodily
harm
Section 20: assault occasioning grievous
bodily harm
Section 18: wounding with intent to cause
grievous bodily harm
Triable either way
5 years’ imprisonment
Triable either way
5 years’ imprisonment
Indictable only
Life imprisonment
Theft
Act
Section 1
Theft Act 1968
Offence
Maximum penalty
Basic definition of theft
A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly
appropriates property belonging to another with
the intention of permanently depriving the other of it
Triable either way
7 years’ imprisonment
Secondary liability and inchoate offences
-automatically apply to new offencesSecondary liability
Secondary party commits the same offence as the principal offender
Aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring the offence (s.44 of the Magistrates’ Court Act
1980 and s.8 of the Accessories and Abettors Act 1861)
Inchoate offences
These offences apply whether or not the principal offence is actually committed
Attempt (Criminal Attempts Act 1981)
Conspiracy (Criminal Law Act 1977)
Encouraging or assisting the offence (ss.44 and 45 of the Serious Crime Act 2007)
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