Commentary on Sections Part 2: Notification and Orders Section 91: Offences relating to notification
181.Subsection (3) provides that the offence of failing to give a notification continues throughout the period during which the required notification is not given. An offender cannot be prosecuted more than once for the same failure. However, if an offender fails to comply with a requirement, is convicted for this offence and then fails to comply again in respect of the same requirement, he commits a new offence and may be prosecuted again.
182.An offence will not be committed where the person has a “reasonable excuse” for failure to comply with a notification requirement. This might be, for example, where an offender does not provide the information in the required time scale because he is in hospital following an accident. In respect of an offence relating to subsection (2)(b) of section 89 a reasonable excuse might be that the parent took all reasonable steps to persuade the young offender to accompany him to the police station.