UK Offence Report

Penalties

regulation 17 of The Export Restrictions (Foot-and-Mouth Disease) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 (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

17 A person contravening any provision of these Regulations shall be guilty of an offence and liable—

a on summary conviction, to

a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to imprisonment not exceeding three months or to both;

b on conviction on indictment, to

a fine or to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding two years or to both.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
breaching the provision
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 17?

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 what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Export Restrictions (Foot-and-Mouth Disease) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

'to a fine' with no stated maximum.

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 August 2007
In force from
14 August 2007
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 implement, for Northern Ireland, Commission Decision 2007/554/EC concerning protection measures against foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom. They regulate— a the dispatch of live animals (regulation 3); b the dispatch of meat from bovine, ovine caprine and porcine animals (regulation 4); c the dispatch of meat products, milk and dairy products (regulations 5, 6 and 7); d the dispatch of semen, ova or embryos of animals of the bovine, ovine, caprine and porcine species and other biungulates (regulation 8); e the dispatch of hides and skins (regulation 9); and f the dispatch of various other animal products (regulation 10). They provide powers for enforcement (regulations 13 and 14 ) and create offences of obstruction and provision of false or misleading information (regulations 15 and 16). Breach of the Regulations is an offence, punishable— a on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum (currently £5,000) or to imprisonment not exceeding three months or to both; b on conviction on indictment, to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both.

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