UK Offence Report

False statements

regulation 18 of Organic Farming Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001 (revoked)

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

18 If any person, for the purposes of obtaining any aid for himself or any other person, knowingly or recklessly makes

a statement which is false in

a material particular, that person shall be guilty of an offence and liable, on summary conviction, to

a fine not exceeding level

5 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
making a false or misleading statement
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, knowingly or recklessly, recklessly).

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, recklessly, knowingly or recklessly.

What would breach regulation 18?

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. Entering a figure on a form or return that is known to be wrong under the Organic Farming Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001.
  2. Leaving out something the form asks for, where the omission is what makes the answer misleading.
  3. Producing a document to an official that has been altered since it was issued.

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
15 January 2001
In force from
1 March 2001
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 Organic Farming Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 (S.R. 1999 No. 237). The Regulations provide for the payment of aid to farmers who undertake to introduce organic farming methods and comply with certain environmental management conditions, pursuant to Article 22 of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1257/1999 (O.J. No. L160, 26.6.1999, p. 80) (“the Rural Development Regulation”). Such aid is part of the rural development plan relating to Northern Ireland submitted by the United Kingdom to the European Commission pursuant to Article 41 of the Rural Development Regulation and which was approved by the Commission on 4th December 2000. These Regulations implement certain provisions of Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1750/1999 (O.J. No. L214, 13.8.1999, p. 31) (“the Commission Regulation”) laying down detailed rules for the application of the Rural Development Regulation, in particular Article 29.2 (which concerns the extension, during the currency of an undertaking, of the area subject to that undertaking) and Article 48 (which provides for a penalty system and exclusion for false declarations). The powers which are conferred by these Regulations are exercisable subject to the terms of Article 38 of the Rural Development Regulation (which restricts duplication of aid payments) and of certain provisions of the Commission Regulation, in particular, Article 29 (which governs transfers of holdings which are subject to agreements or undertakings under the Rural Development Regulation) and Article 30 (force majeure). The Regulations— a enable the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (“the Department”) to make payments of aid, subject to specified conditions, and specify the rate of aid (regulations 3 and 4); b specify the conditions of eligibility to be satisfied by applicants for aid (regulation 5), certain procedural and formal preconditions for the acceptance of applications for aid (regulations 6 and 9), and certain restrictions on the payment of aid (regulation 7); and permit the Department to refuse applications for aid in the event that financial resources available for aid under the Regulations are insufficient (regulation 8); c provide for variations of undertakings given by applicants for aid and amendments to conversion plans (regulations 10 and 11); d provide for the payment of aid to a new occupant where there has been a change in the occupation of an organic unit or part of an organic unit due to the death of a beneficiary or otherwise (regulation 12); e impose obligations in respect of the keeping of records and confer powers of entry and inspection (regulations 13 and 14); f provide for the withholding or recovery of aid and the recovery of interest (regulations 15, 16 and 17); g provide for an offence of making a false statement, and make provision in relation to any such offence committed by a body corporate (regulations 18 and 19); and h revoke, with a saving and transitional provisions, the Organic Farming Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 (regulation 20). The Regulations make the following changes of substance:— a the period for which an applicant must undertake to ensure that no livestock other than organic livestock or livestock undergoing organic conversion are grazed on his organic unit without the prior written agreement of the Department is extended from 62 days to 120 days in each grazing year as defined in regulation 2(2) (regulation 5(2)(b)(iii)); b an arbitration procedure is introduced (regulation 15(5)); and c a beneficiary must undertake to abide by the Code of Good Farming Practice for the Environment published by the Department (paragraph 10 of Schedule 2). The UKROFS standards are published by and copies are available from the Office of the Secretary to UKROFS, Room G47, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR. Copies of the Codes of Good Agricultural Practice for the protection of Soil, Air and Water and Good Farming Practice (referred to in paragraph 10 of Schedule 2) are available free of charge from the Department of Agriculture, Annex D, Dundonald House, Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast BT4 3SB.

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