Summary Offences Regulations 2022

The Regulations are short and turn on a few linked concepts appearing in their text and in the referenced Act. The principal concepts in the instrument are:

• Prescribed days. The Regulations give legal content to the phrase “prescribed days” as it is used in section 38B(3)(b) and section 38B(4)(b) of the Act. The device is regulatory specification , the Regulations declare particular days and periods to be prescribed for specified categories of places of worship (regulation 5). The instrument does not purport to define the operative statutory consequences that follow from a day being “prescribed”; those consequences are in the Act.

• Types of place of worship. The Regulations operate “in respect of a place of worship that is a church”, “a place of worship that is a mosque” and “a place of worship that is a synagogue” (regulation 5(1)-(3)). The Regulations do not include definitions of “church”, “mosque”, or “synagogue”. The phrase “in respect of” signals that the prescribed-day treatment is specific to those types of places as specified.

• Religious days and periods. The instrument distinguishes between single calendar dates and religious periods. For churches the instrument lists individual days (Good Friday; the Saturday before Easter Sunday; Easter Sunday; 24 December; 25 December) (regulation 5(1)). For mosques and synagogues the instrument uses the concept of a “period”, stating that “a day that occurs during one of the following periods is a prescribed day” (regulation 5(2)-(3)). The Regulations do not provide a calendar for when those periods fall in a given year.

• Authorising and temporal scope. The Regulations rely on, and are made under, section 61A of the Summary Offences Act 1966 (regulation 2). They commence on 10 May 2022 (regulation 3) and, per the Endnotes, will sunset 10 years after making under section 5 of the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994.

• Interpretative material. The Endnotes reproduce aspects of the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 relevant to statutory rule drafting and interpretation such as headings, examples and punctuation forming part of the Statutory Rule. Those interpretative statements are administrative and procedural, not substantive changes to the effect of regulation 5.

Taken together, the main technical effect is temporal: the Regulations alter when the statutory restrictions in s 38B apply by expanding or specifying the set of “prescribed days” against which the Act’s prohibitions or limitations operate in relation to particular categories of places of worship.

The Regulations' scope is defined by reference to the offence in the Summary Offences Act 1966 and to specified kinds of places of worship. The primary categories of affected parties that flow from the text are:

• Persons who engage in sex work, insofar as the Regulations prescribe days for the purposes of the offence of engaging in sex work at or near certain places in the Act. The stated objective links the Regulations directly to the Act’s provision on that offence (regulation 1). Therefore the Regulations alter the temporal risk profile for persons who would otherwise be liable under the Act; on a prescribed day the statutory provision in s 38B(3)(b) and s 38B(4)(b) is triggered in respect of qualifying sites.

• Places of worship and their congregations. The Regulations operate “in respect of” churches, mosques and synagogues (regulation 5). Those sites and their congregations are the locations around which the temporal extension or specification operates. The Regulations do not themselves create duties for places of worship, but those sites are the geographic reference points used by the Act to determine whether conduct falls within the scope of s 38B on a prescribed day.

• Law enforcement agencies and prosecuting authorities. Police, prosecutors and other enforcement authorities will apply the Act together with these Regulations when deciding whether to investigate, charge or prosecute conduct that occurs “at or near” qualifying places on a prescribed day. Because the instrument specifies which days are prescribed, enforcement decisions will need to consider whether a given date falls within the instruments set out in regulation 5.

• Local governments, regulators and advisors. Parties who advise or regulate adult services, land use near places of worship, or public safety will need to account for an expanded or clarified set of dates on which the statutory restrictions in s 38B are in effect, including the operational requirement to identify when periods such as Ramadan, Eid ul-Fitr, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah occur in a given calendar year.

• Legal advisers to affected persons. Solicitors, compliance officers and advocates must take into account the Regulations when advising clients about the temporal applicability of the offence provision in s 38B.

• The Executive branch. The Regulations were made by the Governor in Council under statutory authority (Endnotes, General information). The instrument thus sits within the executive’s delegated-law function and alters administrative enforcement parameters for the underlying Act.

The Regulations do not themselves allocate fines, construct exclusion zones, or alter property rights. Their effect is to change the set of dates that operate as triggers for the statutory provisions cited. The material consequences of that change accrue most directly to persons whose conduct is regulated by s 38B of the Act on or near the specified places of worship and to the enforcement agencies that implement the Act on those dates.

The Regulations are narrow and procedural in their legal operation; they prescribe days rather than generate independent duties or rights. Nevertheless, they affect statutory duties and rights by modifying when the Act’s provisions apply. The following are the principal legal obligations and entitlements that arise from the Regulations as written.

• No new standalone duties. The Regulations do not themselves impose an independent criminal prohibition or civil duty. Regulation 1 frames the objective as prescriptive for the purposes of the offence in the Summary Offences Act 1966. The Regulations operate by supplying dates to the Act’s existing text (regulation 1, regulation 5). They therefore change the temporal circumstances in which duties under the Act apply rather than creating separate obligations.

• Temporal extension of statutory risk. By declaring specified dates and periods to be “prescribed days” in respect of specified kinds of places of worship, the Regulations cause the operative clauses of s 38B(3)(b) and s 38B(4)(b) to apply on those days (regulation 5). The immediate legal effect is that any duties, prohibitions, or conditions that the Act attaches to behaviour on “prescribed days” become binding on those dates in the contexts described by regulation 5.

• Reliance on Act for penalties and defences. Because the Regulations do not set penalties or defences, any legal rights to challenge, exempt, or mitigate liability remain located in the Act. The Regulations therefore alter the timing of exposure to the Act’s consequences but do not change what those consequences are. Practitioners must therefore read regulation 5 together with the statutory text of section 38B of the Act to determine precise duties, penalties and possible defences (regulation 4).

• Burden of date identification and notice. The Regulations identify festival names and specific dates but do not themselves specify procedures for ascertaining the exact Gregorian date of moving religious periods in any given year (for example Ramadan or Eid ul-Fitr). That allocates a compliance burden on affected persons and enforcement agencies to determine whether a particular calendar day falls within the periods named in regulation 5(2)-(3). The Regulations do not specify who bears legal responsibility to publish or notify those dates.

• Place-specific application. The Regulations qualify the temporal effect by reference to types of “place of worship”. The legal consequences therefore vary by location: a day that is prescribed in respect of a church under regulation 5(1) will be relevant only for conduct at or near places of worship that meet that description. The instrument does not include definitions of “church”, “mosque” or “synagogue”, which leaves scope for questions about what sites fall within each category and creates potential for differing legal interpretations which must be resolved by reference to the Act or other legislative or administrative definitions.

In summary, the core legal duty created by the instrument is an alteration to the set of days on which obligations under section 38B of the Summary Offences Act 1966 apply , the Regulations change exposure to existing statutory duties rather than creating new standalone duties or rights (regulation 5). The practical duty to identify prescribed days and to determine qualifying places is therefore transferred to persons and authorities who must apply the Act together with these Regulations.

The Regulations do not themselves create penalties or enforcement mechanisms. Their legal function is to designate days for the purposes of the offence provisions contained in the Summary Offences Act 1966; the instrument instructs how the Act should operate temporally (regulation 1, regulation 5). The allocation of sanctioning power, the nature of penalties, procedural enforcement mechanisms, and available defences remain matters for the Act. Practitioners must therefore consult section 38B and other provisions of the Summary Offences Act 1966 to determine the precise penalties, custodial or monetary, and the enforcement process that may be applied on a prescribed day.

Enforcement implications that follow from the Regulations as enacted are:

• Expansion of operational enforcement window. By prescribing additional days and periods, the Regulations expand the set of dates on which the Act’s enforcement provisions in s 38B(3)(b) and s 38B(4)(b) may be applied to conduct occurring at or near the specified types of places of worship (regulation 5). Police and prosecuting authorities will therefore need to consider these dates when assessing incidents and charging decisions.

• Evidence and date determination. Enforcement agencies must be able to demonstrate that an incident occurred on a day that the Regulations have declared to be prescribed. For fixed calendar days listed in regulation 5(1) the date determination is straightforward. For periods identified in regulation 5(2) and 5(3), enforcement will require reliable evidence establishing that the date in question falls within the named period. The Regulations do not provide an administrative calendar or mechanism for resolving disputes about whether a particular day falls within, for example, Ramadan or Hanukkah.

• No additional enforcement personnel or procedures specified. The instrument does not allocate additional administrative powers, resources, or procedural steps for enforcement. Existing enforcement procedure under the Act and under general police powers will therefore continue to govern investigatory and prosecutorial activity.

• Sunset and retrospective enforcement. The Regulations commenced on 10 May 2022 (regulation 3) and, per the Endnotes, are slated to sunset on 10 May 2032 under the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994. Enforcement actions for dates while the Regulations are in force will rely on the Regulations being validly made under s 61A of the Act (regulation 2); after sunsetting, unless remade, the prescribed-day mechanism will lapse. The Regulations do not themselves address retrospective application beyond their commencement date or transitional arrangements.

• Administrative decision-making. Because the Regulations are administrative in form and were made by the Governor in Council (Endnotes, General information), administrative decision-makers will apply them as subordinate legislation. Challenges to enforcement action that depend on whether a day is prescribed may give rise to administrative or judicial review questions, but the Regulations contain no procedural interlocutory scheme for such challenges.

In short, penalties and enforcement remain those provided by the Act. The Regulations influence enforcement by setting which dates fall within the Act’s temporal scope for places of worship described in regulation 5, and they require operational processes to determine whether a given date falls within the named periods.

The Regulations are an instrument under the Summary Offences Act 1966, and their legal operation is expressly tied to specific subsections of that Act. The cross‑references and endnotes in the statutory rule text show how the instrument sits in the broader legislative architecture.

• Connected to Summary Offences Act 1966. Regulation 2 states the authorising provision as section 61A of the Summary Offences Act 1966. Regulation 5 expressly prescribes days “for the purposes of section 38B(3)(b) and (4)(b) of the Act” (regulation 5). This means the Regulations do not function independently; they have operative effect only to the extent that the Act gives the executive power to make such prescriptions and to the extent the Act applies penalties, defences and enforcement mechanisms on prescribed days.

• Interaction with Subordinate Legislation Act 1994. The Endnotes record that the Regulations will sunset 10 years after the day of making under section 5 of the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994. That external Act therefore governs the temporal lifespan of the instrument and establishes a requirement for remaking or review if continued effect is desired beyond the sunset date.

• Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 (ILA). The Endnotes include material from the ILA about statutory-rule drafting and interpretation. Those ILA provisions affect how the Regulations are read. For example, headings, punctuation, examples and notes form part of the rule as permitted or required by the ILA (Endnotes, Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984). That has practical import for interpretative disputes about whether the named days are exhaustive and how the text is parsed.

• Subsidiarity to the Act for substantive content. Because the Regulations do not create offences or prescribe penalties, substantive criminal law, procedural rules, evidentiary requirements, sentencing, and other matters remain governed by the Summary Offences Act 1966 and by general criminal procedure law. The Regulations change only when the Act’s provisions apply in respect of the specified kinds of places.

• No expressed interaction with other statutes in the text. The Regulations do not reference other specific Acts (for example, planning laws, anti-discrimination law or local government instruments) within the body of the Regulations. Any interplay with such laws will therefore arise indirectly via application of the Act’s substantive provisions on prescribed days.

• Administrative law and review. As subordinate legislation made by the Governor in Council, the Regulations are subject to standard administrative-law principles. Challenges to the validity, interpretation or application of the Regulations would be considered against the statutory delegation under s 61A of the Act and general judicial review principles, although the Regulations themselves do not include any special privative clause or procedure.

In practical terms the instrument is a temporal connective tissue between the executive’s delegated regulatory power and the Act’s substantive restrictions. It depends on, and defers to, the Act for enforcement, penalties and definitional content; it is governed in terms of form, lifespan and interpretation by the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 and the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 as reflected in the Endnotes.

The Regulations are new in the version provided. The Table of Amendments in the instrument records that there are no amendments made to the Summary Offences Regulations 2022 by statutory rules, subordinate instruments or Acts (Endnotes, Table of Amendments). The Endnotes and the body of the instrument provide the timeline and formal provenance:

• Date of making and publication. The Endnotes record that the Regulations were made on 10 May 2022 by the Governor in Council under section 61A of the Summary Offences Act 1966 (Endnotes, General information). Regulation 3 confirms the Regulations came into operation on 10 May 2022.

• Sunset provision. The Endnotes state that the Regulations will sunset 10 years after the day of making on 10 May 2032 under section 5 of the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 (Endnotes, General information). That sunset is automatic unless steps are taken under the Subordinate Legislation Act to extend, replace, or remake the instrument.

• Version control. The document header identifies the instrument as Version No. 001, Summary Offences Regulations 2022, S.R. No. 28/2022, and the version is as at 10 May 2022. There are no subsequent statutory rules or amendments listed in the Table of Amendments.

• Explanatory details. The Explanatory details section of the Endnotes contains “No entries at date of publication” (Endnotes, Explanatory details). The absence of entries means the published explanatory material within these Endnotes makes no legislative-history notes, ministerial explanations or subsequent corrigenda beyond the core text and the standard interpretative notes drawn from the ILA.

• Administrative origin. The Endnotes explicitly record the instrument was made under s 61A of the Summary Offences Act 1966 and by the Governor in Council, which identifies the delegated-law route used and the executive body that authorised and enacted the Regulations (Endnotes, General information; regulation 2).

Because the instrument is short and there have been no recorded amendments up to the version date, the amendment history is limited to the original making and the stated automatic sunset. Practitioners should monitor the statutory register or the Victorian legislation website for any future amendments or re‑making prior to the sunset date if continued effect is required after 10 May 2032 (Endnotes, General information).

The Regulations as supplied do not include any record of litigation. The Endnotes and Explanatory details contain no entries indicating judicial challenges, declaratory proceedings, or appellate consideration of the Regulations up to the version date. The Table of Amendments records no subsequent statutory rules, subordinate instruments or Acts that have amended or annotated the Regulations (Endnotes, Table of Amendments).

What the instrument’s text shows on litigation-related points is limited:

• No recorded judicial construction. The body of the Regulations and Endnotes contain no references to case authority or prior judicial interpretation relevant to the meaning of “prescribed days” as used in s 38B of the Act.

• Potential grounds for challenge. The Regulations are made under an express statutory delegation, being section 61A of the Summary Offences Act 1966 (regulation 2). Challenges that might be pursued in litigation would typically concern whether the delegation was validly exercised, whether the Regulations exceed the scope of the enabling provision, whether there was some procedural defect in their making, or whether their content is impermissibly vague when taken with the Act. The text of the Regulations does not itself record any such litigation.

• Administrative-review context. Because the Regulations are an exercise of executive delegated power, any disputes regarding validity, interpretation or application would be matters for judicial review or other administrative-law remedies. There is no case law cited in the instrument to guide how courts have construed similar delegated prescriptions under the Act.

• No recorded transitional or ancillary orders. The Regulations do not contain transitional provisions or savings clauses that might otherwise have produced litigation on their application to conduct occurring near the commencement date. The Endnotes do not list any explanatory material pointing to anticipated enforcement patterns or transitional mechanisms.

Practitioners should therefore treat the Regulations as untested in the courts according to the supplied text, and should prepare for the possibility that disputes could arise about (a) whether a particular site qualifies as the kind of place of worship specified, (b) whether a given date falls within a named period such as “Ramadan” or “Hanukkah”, and (c) whether the exercise of delegated power in s 61A was within statutory limits. None of these matters are resolved within the instrument itself.

The Regulations are concise but contain several practical and legal friction points that warrant attention. These are concrete mechanics and compliance risks grounded in the instrument’s text.

• The Regulations do not define “church”, “mosque” or “synagogue”. Regulation 5 applies the prescribed-day treatment “in respect of a place of worship that is a church” (and similarly for mosque and synagogue) but supplies no definition of those terms. That creates potential ambiguity about what premises count as qualifying places of worship for the purposes of s 38B. The Act may contain definitions; the Regulations do not. Practitioners will need to check the Act or other statutory or administrative definitions to ascertain scope.

• Variable-period identification is unspecified. For mosques and synagogues the Regulations treat days within named “periods” (for example “Ramadan”, “Eid ul-Fitr”, “Yom Kippur”, “Hanukkah”) as prescribed days (regulation 5(2)-(3)). The instrument does not state how to identify the Gregorian-calendar dates for those periods in any particular year. This raises evidence and notice issues for enforcement and compliance: police and affected persons must be able to establish, for a given Gregorian date, whether it falls within the named religious period.

• Different temporal treatment across religions. For churches the Regulations list specific fixed or movably referenced days and dates (including Easter-related days and Christmas Eve and Christmas Day) (regulation 5(1)), whereas for mosques and synagogues they use the language of “periods”. That produces asymmetry that could complicate operational guidance, as enforcement authorities will apply different identification processes for different religious groups.

• “Saturday before Easter Sunday” formulation. The Regulations prescribe “the Saturday before Easter Sunday” as distinct from “Easter Saturday” terminology or “Holy Saturday”, using a descriptive phrasing rather than a precise canonical name (regulation 5(1)(b)). Practical identification of that day requires reference to the date of Easter in a given year. The Regulations do not supply a rule for calculating Easter’s date.

• No procedural notice requirement. The instrument does not require publication or advance notice of annually relevant prescribed days or of the dates for multi-day religious periods. The absence of such an administrative mechanism means that the onus to determine prescribed days likely falls on affected persons and enforcement agencies, which can generate disputes about notice and fair warning.

• Sunset risk. The Regulations will lapse on 10 May 2032 unless remade (Endnotes, General information). If the executive wishes to retain the regime beyond that date a remaking process will be required. Parties who plan compliance programmes should factor the sunset into medium-term planning.

• No explanatory guidance. The Explanatory details section contains “No entries at date of publication” (Endnotes, Explanatory details). Practitioners cannot rely on instrument-provided explanatory guidance for interpretative questions.

• Narrow scope but important practical effect. Although the Regulations are short and formalistic, they alter the dates on which the Act’s offence provisions apply to conduct at or near religious sites. Even a narrowly framed regulation can significantly shift operational enforcement windows and legal exposure for individuals; the brevity of the instrument should not be mistaken for lack of operational impact.

These points indicate where disputes, enforcement difficulties, and compliance costs are likely to arise. Each is grounded in the text of the Regulations: lack of onsite definitions (regulation 5), absence of calendar specification for named periods (regulation 5(2)-(3)), asymmetrical treatment across religions (regulation 5(1)-(3)), and absence of explanatory material (Endnotes, Explanatory details).

The Regulations impose a practical compliance requirement: affected persons and authorities must be able to determine whether a particular date is a “prescribed day” under regulation 5 and, if so, apply the relevant provisions of the Summary Offences Act 1966. The Regulations themselves do not set out operational steps or procedural obligations; they therefore leave practical compliance to stakeholders. The following reasonable compliance measures follow from the instrument’s text.

• Read the Regulations with the Act. Because the Regulations operate “for the purposes of” s 38B(3)(b) and s 38B(4)(b) of the Summary Offences Act 1966 (regulation 5), compliance requires reading regulation 5 together with the statutory text of the Act. Legal advisers should confirm the substantive effect of s 38B, the definitions that the Act supplies, available defences, and the penalties that can be imposed.

• Establish an authoritative calendar for variable-period dates. For festivals identified as periods in regulation 5(2)-(3) the Regulations do not provide dates. Practitioners should determine and document authoritative sources used to identify when Ramadan, Eid ul-Fitr, Yom Kippur, and Hanukkah fall in each Gregorian year. Such sources might include official religious councils, recognised community organisations, or widely accepted calendaring authorities. Record the basis for date determination in case of dispute.

• Publish and communicate dates. Places of worship, local councils and enforcement agencies should consider publishing an annual schedule of the prescribed days as they apply locally. Although the Regulations do not create a statutory obligation to publish dates, doing so reduces risk of argument about lack of notice.

• Clarify the scope of qualifying places. Because regulation 5 applies to “a place of worship that is a church”, “a mosque” or “a synagogue” without definitions, entities advising clients should determine how such terms are applied in the Act or in governing case law or administrative practice. If the Act lacks a definition, identify the criteria that will be used to determine whether a given premises qualifies as a church, mosque or synagogue and document the evidentiary basis.

• Train enforcement and compliance staff. Police, regulatory officers and compliance teams should be trained to check the prescribed-day list and the method for date identification before undertaking enforcement action related to s 38B. That training should include record-keeping requirements to demonstrate awareness of the prescribed status of a particular day.

• Maintain audit trails. Entities facing enforcement exposure should keep contemporaneous records showing awareness of the date’s status, steps taken to confirm whether it was a prescribed day, and any communications with enforcement authorities. Because the Regulations do not supply notice mechanisms, audit trails will assist in any subsequent challenge.

• Monitor the sunset. The Regulations will sunset on 10 May 2032 unless remade (Endnotes, General information). Organisations that build compliance processes around these Regulations should place the sunset date on their regulatory watchlists and plan for a potential lapse or remaking of the instrument.

• Seek legal advice in borderline cases. If there is ambiguity about whether a premises qualifies as a named type of place of worship, or whether a given date falls within a named period, obtain legal advice. The Regulations are concise and leave room for interpretative dispute; early legal advice can reduce enforcement risk.

• Consider community engagement. Places of worship and community leaders may find it efficient to coordinate on communicating festival timing and expectations to local authorities and affected businesses. While the Regulations do not require such coordination, it reduces information asymmetry between communities and enforcement bodies.

Implementing these compliance measures aligns operational practice with the text of the Regulations, which prescribes specific dates and periods for named types of places of worship without providing definitional or calendaring mechanisms (regulation 5, regulation 4; Endnotes, General information). The practical effect of compliance steps is to reduce uncertainty about whether a particular day is a “prescribed day” and therefore whether the statutory provisions in the Act are engaged.