UK Offence Report

Powers of an officer of the Department

regulation 5(3) of Cattle Identification (Enforcement) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998

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

3 Any person who contravenes any notice served under paragraph (1) 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 5(3)?

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 any notice served under paragraph (1).
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Cattle Identification (Enforcement) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998, 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
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

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
30 January 1998
In force from
2 February 1998
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 create offences for breach of— Article 4.3 (imports of cattle from third countries) Article 4.5 (removal of ear tags) Article 7.1 First Indent (keeping a register) Article 7.1 Second Indent (Notification of movements, births and deaths) Article 7.3 (provision of information) Article 7.4 (production and retention of the register) of Council Regulation 820/97/EC (establishing a system for the identification and registration of bovine animals and regarding the labelling of beef and beef products (O.J. No. L117, 7.5.97, p. 1). They provide that the competent authority for the purposes of Articles 4.1, 4.5, 4.6, 7.3 and 7.4 of that Regulation is the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland. They specify the form of a register and when it shall be filled in (regulation 3 and the Schedule). The Regulations also give powers to inspectors and officers of the Department (regulations 4 and 5), and create offences of obstruction (regulation 6). Breach of the Regulations is an offence punishable— for obstruction and failure to give assistance and information, on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to both; for any other offence, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or to imprisonment not exceeding three months or to both; on conviction on indictment, to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both (regulation 7). The Regulations also revoke parts of the Animals (Records) Order and parts of the Tuberculosis Control Order (Northern Ireland) 1964. They amend the Suckler Cow Premium Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1993 and the Beef Special Premium (Protection of Payments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 (regulation 8).

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same 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