UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 14(1) of Diseases of Fish (Control) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

1 A person contravening any provision of these Regulations shall be guilty of an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
breaching the provision
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

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

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach regulation 14(1)?

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.

  1. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Diseases of Fish (Control) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
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.

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
Status not determined
Made
18 January 1996
In force from
23 February 1996
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations.) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations implement in respect of Northern Ireland Council Directive 93/53/EEC (O.J. No. L175, 19.7.93, p. 23) introducing minimum Community measures for the control of certain fish diseases, to the extent that it is not implemented by existing legislation. The Regulations— a require that an official census be conducted and a record kept, and updated, of the fish populations on farms which are suspected of being infected with fish diseases (regulation 3 and Schedule 2); b set out the control measures to be taken when the presence of a disease listed in Part I of Schedule 3 is suspected on a farm (regulation 4 and Schedule 4); c set out the control measures to be taken when the presence of a disease listed in Part I of Schedule 3 is confirmed on a farm (regulation 5 and Schedule 5); d set out the control measures to be taken when the presence of a disease listed in Part II of Schedule 3 is suspected in an approved zone or on an approved farm (i.e., a zone or farm which has obtained approved status under Council Directive 91/67/EEC (O.J. No. L46, 19.2.91, p. 1) concerning the animal health conditions governing the placing on the market of aquaculture animals and products) in a non-approved zone (regulation 6 and Schedule 4); e set out the control measures to be taken when the presence of a disease listed in Part II of Schedule 3 is confirmed in an approved zone or on an approved farm in a non-approved zone (regulation 7 and Schedule 5); f set out the control measures to be taken when a disease listed in Part II of Schedule 3 is suspected at a non-approved farm in a non-approved zone (regulation 8); g set out the control measures to be taken when a disease listed in Schedule 3 is suspected or confirmed amongst fish in the wild (regulation 9); h prohibit the vaccination of fish against diseases (regulation 10); i provide powers for the enforcement of these Regulations including powers of entry (regulations 11 to 13); j provide that contravention of any provisions of the Regulations or any notice served under them shall be punishable by a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale (£5,000) (regulation 14).

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

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