UK Offence Report

3 Where there is, in respect of any third country fishing boat within the Northern Ireland zone to which any…

article 4(3) of Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Quota and Third Country Fishing Measures) Order (Northern Ireland) 2004

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 Where there is, in respect of any third country fishing boat within the Northern Ireland zone to which any specified Community provision in Column

1 of Schedule

3 to this Order applies,

a contravention of, or failure to comply with, that specified Community provision, the master, the owner and the charterer (if any) shall each 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 master
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 master 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 article 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. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Quota and Third Country Fishing Measures) Order (Northern Ireland) 2004, whatever the reason for doing it.
  2. 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
14 October 2004
In force from
15 November 2004
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 Order.) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order makes provision for the enforcement of certain enforceable Community restrictions and other obligations relating to sea fishing by vessels of the Community or of third countries set out in Council Regulation (EC) No. 2287/2003 (O.J. No. L344, 31.12.2003, p. 1) (“the Council Regulation”). The Council Regulation fixes total allowable catches and Member States' quotas for 2004 and lays down certain conditions under which they may be fished. It also authorises fishing by vessels of Norway and the Faroe Islands for specified descriptions of fish in certain specified areas within Member States' fishery limits in 2004 and imposes requirements concerning fishing quotas and authorised zones, methods of fishing, the holding of licences and observance of licence conditions, the keeping of logbooks, the making of reports and weighing obligations of buyers and holders of fish. Article 4 of the Order creates offences in respect of breaches of the provisions of the Council Regulation referred to in Column 1 (and briefly described in Column 2) of Schedules 1 and 2 to the Order, in the case of Community vessels, and Schedules 2 and 3, in the case of buyers and holders of fish and of third country vessels. Penalties are specified for such offences (Article 5). The statutory maximum penalty specified in the Schedules is currently £50,000. Provision is made for the recovery of fines (Article 6). The Order confers powers of enforcement on British sea-fishery officers in relation to certain fishing boats, as well as on land in Northern Ireland, and in relation to the seizure of fish and fishing gear (Articles 7, 8, 9 and 10). Provision is made for the punishment of anyone found guilty of assaulting or obstructing an officer (Article 11). The Order revokes the Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Quota and Third Country Fishing Measures) Order 2002 (S.I. 2002/272) insofar as it relates to Northern Ireland.

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