UK Offence Report

1 A person who contravenes or fails to comply with any provision of these Regulations without reasonable…

regulation 14(1) of The Marketing of Ornamental Plant Propagating Material Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999

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 who contravenes or fails to comply with any provision of these Regulations without reasonable excuse 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

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.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

or fails to comply with any provision of these Regulations without reasonable excuse shall be guilty of an offence.

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. On these words an offence is committed where a person contravenes or fails to comply with any provision of these Regulations without reasonable excuse.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Marketing of Ornamental Plant Propagating Material Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999, 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
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£1,000
Standard scale
Level 3
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
22 December 1999
In force from
31 December 1999
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 revoke and replace the Marketing of Ornamental Plant Material Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995. The Regulations implement Council Directive 98/56/EC on the marketing of propagating material of ornamental plants (O.J. No. L.226, 13.8.98, p. 16); Commission Directive 1999/68/EC setting out additional provisions for lists of varieties of ornamental plants as kept by suppliers under Directive 98/56 (O.J. No. L.172, 8.7.99, p. 42); and Commission Directive 1999/66/EC setting out requirements as to the label or other document made out by the supplier pursuant to Council Directive 98/56 (O.J. No. L.164, 30.6.99, p. 76). The Regulations come into operation on 31st December 1999. The Regulations set quality standards to be met by ornamental plant propagating material when marketed and prescribe conditions to be satisfied by suppliers. They introduce the following principal changes— 1 The Regulations apply to the propagating material of all ornamental plants (regulations 2 and 3). 2 Propagating material intended for use in the conservation of genetic diversity is exempted from the Regulations (regulation 3). 3 The quality requirements for propagating material, including citrus material and flower bulbs, are modified (regulations 4, 5 and 6). 4 The system of accreditation for those who market plant material is ended and a system of registration is introduced (regulations 1 and 7). 5 Suppliers must notify the Department of the appearance on their premises of any plant pest which is listed in the Plant Health Order (Northern Ireland) 1993 (regulation 8). 6 The information to appear in suppliers' documentation is modified with effect from 31st December 1999 (regulations 1 and 9 and the Schedule). 7 Importers of propagating material from third countries are required to ensure that it is equivalent to material produced in accordance with Directive 98/56 and to notify the Department (regulation 12).

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

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