UK Offence Report

9 A person who contravenes these Regulations or any provision of the SBMTD Regulations as applied by these…

regulation 9 of The Heads of Sheep and Goats (Treatment and Disposal) 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

9 A person who contravenes these Regulations or any provision of the SBMTD Regulations as applied by these Regulations or any direction given under the SBMTD Regulations as so applied, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable—

a on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

5 on the Standard Scale; or

b on conviction on indictment, to

a fine or imprisonment for

a term not exceeding two years or to both.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
contravening a requirement of the instrument
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 9?

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. On these words an offence is committed where a person contravenes these Regulations or any provision of the SBMTD Regulations as applied by these Regulations or any direction given under the SBMTD Regulations as so applied.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Heads of Sheep and Goats (Treatment and Disposal) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

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
14 September 1996
In force from
16 September 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 prohibit the sale for human consumption of any part of the head of a sheep or goat and of food containing any part of such heads. They also prohibit the sale of any part of such heads for use in the preparation of food for human consumption and the use of any part of such heads in the preparation of food for human consumption (regulation 3). These prohibitions do not apply in relation to the tongue where it is removed from the head immediately after the slaughter of the animal. The prohibitions also do not apply to the heads of sheep or goats which were born, reared and slaughtered in Australia or New Zealand. The heads of sheep and goats are, subject to certain exceptions, required to be removed immediately after slaughter, stained, and disposed of in the same way as specified bovine material (regulations 4 to 6). For this purpose certain provisions of the Specified Bovine Material (Treatment and Disposal) (No. 3) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996, are applied in relation to sheep and goats heads.

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