{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/senedd-cymru-representation-of-the-people-order-2025/article-32",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/senedd-cymru-representation-of-the-people-order-2025/article-32.json",
  "legislation": "wsi/2025/864",
  "legislation_title": "The Senedd Cymru (Representation of the People) Order 2025",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/senedd-cymru-representation-of-the-people-order-2025",
  "path": "article/32",
  "kind": "article",
  "number": "32",
  "heading": "Breach of official duty",
  "text": "(1) If a person to whom this article applies is, without reasonable cause, guilty of any act or omission in breach of that person’s official duty, that person is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.\n(2) No person to whom this article applies will be liable to any penalty at common law for breach of that person’s official duty, and no action for damages will lie in respect of the breach by such a person of that person’s official duty.\n(3) The persons to whom this article applies are—\n(a) any registration officer, returning officer or presiding officer,\n(b) any other person whose duty it is to be responsible after a Senedd election for the used ballot papers and other documents, including returns and declarations as to expenses,\n(c) any official designated by a universal service provider, and\n(d) any deputy of a person mentioned in any of sub-paragraphs (a) to (c), or any person appointed to assist or in the course of that person’s employment assisting a person so mentioned in connection with that person’s official duties.\n(4) Where—\n(a) a returning officer for a Senedd election is guilty of an act or omission in breach of the returning officer’s official duty, but\n(b) the returning officer remedies that act or omission in full by taking steps under article 21(1),\nthe returning officer will not be guilty of an offence under paragraph (1).\n(5) Paragraph (4) does not affect any conviction which takes place, or any penalty which is imposed, before the date on which the act or omission is remedied in full.\n(6) For the purposes of this article, “official duty” will not include duties imposed otherwise than by the law relating to Senedd elections or the registration of local government electors.",
  "extent": "E+W",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "I",
      "label": "I1",
      "text": "Art. 32 in force at 18.7.2025, see art. 1(2)"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/wsi/2025/864/article/32",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-28T22:57:06.457930+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}