Member States (Amendment) Regulations, 2022

L.N. 206 of 2022

CONDUCT CERTIFICATES ORDINANCE

(CAP. 77)

Organisation and Content of the Exchange of Information

Extracted from the Criminal Record between Malta and other

Member States (Amendment) Regulations, 2022

IN EXERCISE of the powers conferred by article 10 of the

Conduct Certificates Ordinance, the Minister responsible for the

Police has made the following regulations:-

The title of these regulations is the Organisation and Citation.

Content of the Exchange of Information Extracted from the Criminal

Record between Malta and other Member States (Amendment)

Regulations, 2022 and these regulations shall be read and construed as

one with the Organisation and Content of the Exchange of Information S.L. 77.01.

Extracted from the Criminal Record between Malta and other Member

States Regulations, hereinafter referred to as "the principal

regulations".

Sub-regulation (2) of regulation 1 of the principal Amends

regulation 1 of

regulations shall be substituted by the following

the principal

regulations.

"(2) These regulations transpose Directive (EU) 2019/884

of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019

amending Council Framework Decision 2009/315/JHA, as

regards the exchange of information on third-country nationals

and as regards the European Criminal Records Information

System (ECRIS), and replacing Council Decision 2009/316/

JHA.".

Regulation 2 of the principal regulations shall be amended Amends

regulation 2 of

as follows

the principal

regulations.

(a) immediately after the definition "conviction" there

shall be added the following new definition

" "convicting Member State" means the Member State

where a conviction is handed down;";

(b) immediately after the definition "criminal record"

there shall be added the following new definition

" "ECRIS reference implementation" means the

software developed by the European Commission and made

available to the Member States for the exchange of criminal

records information through ECRIS;";

(c) immediately after the definition "the European

Union" there shall be added the following new definitions

" "facial image" means a digital image of a person’s

face;

"fingerprint data" means the data relating to plain and

rolled impressions of the fingerprints of each of a person’s

fingers;";

(d) immediately after the definition "National Central

Authority" there shall be added the following new definition

" "third-country national" means a person who is not a

citizen of the European Union within the meaning of

Article 20(1) TFEU, or who is a stateless person or a person

whose nationality is unknown;".

Sub-regulation (1) of regulation 3 of the principal

regulations shall be substituted by the following

"(1) The National Central Authority shall take the

necessary measures to ensure that all convictions handed down

within the Maltese territory are accompanied by information on

the nationality or nationalities of the convicted person if the

person is a national of another Member State or a third country

national. Where a convicted person is of unknown nationality or

stateless, the criminal record shall reflect this.".

Regulation 5 of the principal regulations shall be amended

as follows

(a) sub-regulation (3) thereof shall be substituted by the

following

"(3) Whenever a national of another Member State

asks the National Central Authority for information on his

own criminal record, the National Central Authority shall

submit a request to the Central Authority of the Member

State of the person’s nationality for information and related

data to be extracted from the criminal record and shall

include such information and related data in the extract to

be provided to the person concerned.";

(b) Immediately after sub-regulation (3) thereof as

substituted, there shall be added the following new sub-

regulation

"(3a) Where a third country national asks the

National Central Authority for information on his own

criminal record, that National Central Authority shall

submit a request only to those central authorities of the

Member States which hold information on the criminal

record of that person for information and related data to be

extracted from the criminal records and shall include such

information and related data in the extract to be provided to

the person concerned.".

Regulation 6 of the principal regulations shall be amended Amends

regulation 6 of

as follows

the principal

regulations.

(a) sub-regulation (4) thereof, shall be substituted by the

following

"(4) When information extracted from the criminal

record on convictions handed down against a national of a

Member State other than a Maltese national is requested,

the National Central Authority shall transmit such

information to the same extent as provided for in article 13

of the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in

Criminal Matters

Provided that if the National Central Authority

is the requested Member State, the National Central

Authority shall transmit its reply within twenty working

days from the date the request was received.";

(b) immediately after sub-regulation (4) thereof as

substituted, there shall be added the following new sub-

regulation

"(4a) When information extracted from the criminal

record of a third-country national is requested, the National

Central Authority shall transmit information on any

conviction handed down in Malta and entered in the

criminal records and on any conviction handed down in

third countries and subsequently transmitted to the National

Central Authority and entered into the criminal records

Provided that where this information is

requested for any purpose other than that of criminal

proceedings sub-regulation (2) shall apply accordingly

Provided further that if the National Central

Authority is the requested Member State, the National

Central Authority shall transmit its reply within twenty

working days from the date the request was received.".

Regulation 9 of the principal regulations shall be amended

(a) in sub-paragraph (ii) of paragraph (c) of sub-

regulation (1) thereof, the word "and" shall be deleted;

(b) in sub-paragraph (iii) of paragraph (c) of sub-

regulation (1) thereof, the words "alias name(s):" shall be

substituted by the words "alias name(s); and" and immediately

thereafter there shall be added the following new sub-paragraph;

"(iv) facial image:";

(c) Immediately after sub-regulation (2) thereof there

shall be added the following new sub-regulations

"(3) The National Central Authority shall

transmit the following information electronically using

ECRIS and a standardised format in accordance with

the standards to be laid down in the European

Commission’s implementing acts

(a) information referred to in regulation 5;

(b) requests

for

information

on

convictions;

(c) replies to requests for information on

convictions;

(d) other relevant information.

(4) If the mode of transmission referred to in

sub-regulation (3) is not available, the National Central

Authority shall transmit all information referred to in

sub-regulation (3) by any means capable of producing a

written record under conditions allowing the central

authority of the receiving Member State to establish the

authenticity of the information, taking the security of

transmission into consideration.

(5) If the mode of transmission referred to in

sub-regulation (3) is not available for an extended

period of time, the National Central Authority shall

inform the other Member States and the European

Commission.".

€0.36