Commentary on Sections Section 7: Offences
35.Subsection (1) inserts section 13D in the Representation of the People Act 1983 which makes it an offence to provide false information pursuant to any requirement imposed by the amendments made by section 1 of the 2002 Act on an application for registration as an elector in Northern Ireland.
36.Section 13D(1) makes it an offence for a person to provide: a false signature, or a false date of birth, or a false national insurance number (or false statement that he or she does not have a number), or a false statement that he or she has been resident in Northern Ireland for the whole of the three-month period prior to the application, on application for registration as an elector in Northern Ireland. Section 13D(1) also makes it an offence for a person to fail to provide any address in the UK in respect of which he or she is, or has applied to be, registered.
37.Section 13D(2) makes it an offence to provide false information to the Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland for the purpose of obtaining his dispensation for the requirement for an application to be signed where it is not reasonably practicable for a person to sign in a consistent and distinctive way because of any incapacity of his or because he is unable to read.
38.Section 13D(6) provides that a person found guilty of the above offences is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months; or a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale; or both.
39.Subsection (2) of section 7 amends Part I of Schedule 1 to the Elected Authorities (Northern Ireland) Act 1989 to ensure that the provisions about offences in new section 13D apply also to the registration of local electors in Northern Ireland. (The changes made to the Representation of the People Act 1983 by clause 1 will automatically apply to local elections there on the basis of amendments made to the Elected Authorities (Northern Ireland) Act 1989 by Schedule 3 to the Representation of the People Act 2000.)