UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 16(1) of Agricultural and Forestry Marketing Development Grant 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

1 A person is guilty of an offence if—

a for the purposes of obtaining financial support for himself or any other person under these Regulations he knowingly or recklessly makes

a statement which is false or misleading in

a material particular; or

b he intentionally obstructs an authorised person (or

a person accompanying him and acting under his instructions) in the exercise of his powers under regulation 10.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
obstructing an official exercising a power
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 (intentionally, 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, intentionally, recklessly, knowingly or recklessly.

What would breach regulation 16(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. Refusing to let an inspector onto premises they are entitled to enter under the Agricultural and Forestry Marketing Development Grant Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007.
  2. Sending an official away, or telling staff to say nothing, where the power being exercised does not depend on anyone's consent.
  3. Physically blocking an examination, or removing something an officer has said they intend to inspect.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown 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
1 October 2007
In force from
30 October 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, which come into operation on 30th October 2007, supplement in respect of Northern Ireland the Community legislation listed in the Schedule to the Regulations (“the Community legislation”). The Community legislation inter alia provides for support to be paid from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (“Community support”) towards investment relating to the marketing of agricultural and forestry products. The Regulations operate within the scope of these provisions by enabling Community support to be paid by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (“the Department”) in respect of any expenditure it has approved. Such expenditure may be approved if it is eligible for assistance under the Community legislation and is expenditure for which support may be granted pursuant to Articles 20(b)(iii) and 28 of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1698/2005 (regulations 3 to 5). The Regulations also provide for the making of claims for, and the payment of, grants following approval (regulations 6 and 7) and also contain provisions creating obligations on those in receipt of grants concerning the provision of information (regulation 8) and record-keeping (regulation 9). In addition the Regulations confer powers of entry on certain authorised persons, including Officials of the Commission (regulation 10), introduce a system of penalties to be imposed in the event of a breach of obligations by granting the Department various powers to take action, up to and including termination of approval in the event of breaches of the conditions of an approval and in a number of other cases (regulations 11 to 13), provide power to recover interest on sums recovered and that these be classified as a debt (regulations 14 and 15) and create offences in respect of the furnishing of false information for the purpose of obtaining financial assistance and in respect of obstruction (regulation 16). The Regulations revoke, subject to transitional saving, the Marketing of Quality Agricultural Products Grant Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002 (S.R.2002 No.29) (regulation 17).

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