UK Offence Report

Prohibitions and offences

regulation 4(3) of The Animal Feedingstuffs from Belgium (Control) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000

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 A person who knowingly contravenes paragraph (1) shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

5 on the standard scale or imprisonment for

a period not exceeding three months.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove both that the conduct happened and that it was done with the state of mind the provision names (knowingly).

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

Classifier’s reasoning: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: knowingly.

What would breach regulation 4(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 knowingly contravenes paragraph (1).
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Animal Feedingstuffs from Belgium (Control) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000, 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
£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
10 March 2000
In force from
13 March 2000
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 re-enact, with certain changes, the Animal Feedingstuffs from Belgium (Control) (No. 4) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 (“the revoked Regulations”) and implement, in relation to products for animal feeding Commission Decision 2000/150/EC amending Decision 1999/788/EC on protective measures with regard to contamination by dioxins of certain products of animal origin intended for human or animal consumption (O.J. No. L50, 23.2.2000, p. 25). Like the revoked Regulations, these Regulations— a define “controlled entity” (regulation 2) and prohibit, subject to exceptions (reulation 3), the carrying out of specified operations with respect thereto (regulation 4); b specify the enforcement authorities (regulation 5); and c apply, with modifications, provisions of food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 (regulation 6). The Regulations make the following changes of substance— a they narrow the coverage of the revocked Regulations in that, from the range of products subject to the controls contained in those Regulations and to be used for feed, the following are removed, namely eggs, rendered fats, processed animal proteins, compound feedingstuffs and premixtures; and b they reflects changes (consequential on the changes referred to in paragraph (a) above) to the certification requirements for the importation from Belgium of products remaining subject to controls and for the return to Belgium of those products.

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