What would breach article 88 of The Roads (Northern Ireland) Order 1993?

Refusing to let an inspector onto premises they are entitled to enter under the Roads (Northern Ireland) Order 1993. Sending an official away, or telling staff to say nothing, where the power being exercised does not depend on anyone's consent. Physically blocking an examination, or removing something an officer has said they intend to inspect.

Obstruction of roads

Q: Is article 88 of The Roads (Northern Ireland) Order 1993 a strict liability offence?

The prosecution must prove the conduct, and - for those elements the provision qualifies (intentionally) - the state of mind it names. The remaining elements carry no fault requirement, so they are strict.

article 88 of The Roads (Northern Ireland) Order 1993

Revoked
Mixed — some elements strict, some not
Summary only
Housing, planning, heritage and land

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

88 Any person who, without lawful authority or reasonable excuse, in any way intentionally or negligently obstructs the free passage along
a road shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to
a fine not exceeding level
2 on the standard scale.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds: a person
Conduct: obstructing an official exercising a power
Fault element: Mixed — some elements strict, some not
Burden of proof: No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove the conduct, and - for those elements the provision qualifies (intentionally) - the state of mind it names. The remaining elements carry no fault requirement, so they are strict.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: both a mens rea word and an objective standard appear in the offence itself.

What would breach article 88?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

Refusing to let an inspector onto premises they are entitled to enter under the Roads (Northern Ireland) Order 1993.
Sending an official away, or telling staff to say nothing, where the power being exercised does not depend on anyone's consent.
Physically blocking an examination, or removing something an officer has said they intend to inspect.

Penalty

Mode of trial: Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine: £500
Standard scale: Level 2
Maximum prison (summary): Not determined

in Northern Ireland a reference to a level is construed as referring to the standard scale as it currently stands (Fines and Penalties (NI) Order 1984 art.5(3)), not as it stood when the instrument was made.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Environmental offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 July 2014
Covers unauthorised or harmful deposit, treatment or disposal of waste, illegal discharges to air, land and water, and the equivalent offences committed by organisations. It is the guideline that introduced turnover bands for corporate fines, so the size of the defendant company is a starting point rather than a mitigating detail.
Reduction in sentence for a guilty plea: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 June 2017
The sliding scale of credit for pleading guilty, from one third at the first stage of proceedings downwards.
General guideline: overarching principles All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 October 2019
The guideline a court uses when there is no offence-specific guideline, which is the position for the overwhelming majority of offences created by statutory instrument. It sets out how culpability and harm are assessed from first principles.
Totality: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales
How to sentence more than one offence at once so that the total is just and proportionate - frequently in point here, because regulatory prosecutions commonly charge several breaches of the same instrument.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status: Revoked
Revoked by: The Competition Act 1998 (Transitional, Consequential and Supplemental Provisions) Order 2000
Revoked on: 1 March 2000
Made: 16 December 1993
In force from: 17 February 1994
Extent: Not stated

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

What the instrument is for

This Order re-enacts with amendments the Roads (Northern Ireland) Order 1980 and other related legislation relating to the construction, improvement, maintenance and protection of roads. The Order also makes new provision for road ferry services.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same instrument

Charges for road ferry servicesarticle 101(5)
Byelaws in connection with road ferry servicesarticle 102(2)
Extraordinary trafficarticle 11(3)
Power to obtain information as to ownership of landarticle 118(2)
Power to enter on landarticle 119(7)
Power to enter land for construction of temporary worksarticle 120(4)
Restriction of access, etc. in connection with special roadsarticle 18(3)
Restrictions on use of special roadsarticle 20(4)
Prohibition and control of advertising, etc. on or near special roadsarticle 21(1)
Collection of tollsarticle 36(3)
Refusal or failure to pay tollsarticle 37(1)
Obstruction of, interference with, or discharge of material into, a road drain, etcarticle 46(1)

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.92.

Basis: the provision says a person is “guilty of an offence”
Confidence: 0.92 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source

This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
The Roads (Northern Ireland) Order 1993 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
Housing, planning, heritage and landOther offences on the same subject
Offences created in 1993