UK Offence Report

25 A person is guilty of an offence if, without reasonable cause, he— a fails to comply with a requirement…

regulation 25 of The Products of Animal Origin (Disease Control) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008

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

25 A person is guilty of an offence if, without reasonable cause, he—

a fails to comply with

a requirement of these Regulations;

b obstructs any person executing these Regulations; or

c provides information which he knows to be false or misleading to such

a person.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 25?

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 Products of Animal Origin (Disease Control) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008.
  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
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland.

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
27 October 2008
In force from
21 November 2008
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 partially transpose in Northern Ireland Articles 3 and 4 of Council Directive 2002/99/EC laying down the animal health rules governing the production, processing, distribution and introduction of products of animal origin for human consumption (OJ No L 18, 23.1.2003, p. 11). These Articles are also transposed by the Diseases of Poultry Order (Northern Ireland) 1995 (S.R. 1995 No.465), the Foot-and-Mouth Disease Regulations (Northern Ireland) (S.R. 2006 No.42) and the Avian Influenza and Influenza of Avian Origin in Mammals Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 (S.R.2007 No.68). Other Articles of the Council Directive and other EC measures supplementing them are transposed by: a The Official Feed and Food Controls Regulations (NI) 2006 (S.R.2006 No.2) b The Official Controls (Animals, Feed and Food) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 (S.R.2007 No.133); c The Animal and Animal Products (Import and Export) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (S.R.2006 No.401); d The Products of Animal Origin (Import and Export) Regulations (Northern Ireland) (1998 No.45 as amended); e The Products of Animal Origin (Third Country Imports) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 (S.R.2007 No.199);and f The Food Hygiene Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (S.R.2006 No.3). These Regulations also transpose, insofar as they apply to Newcastle disease, the Commission Decision 2007/118/EC establishing an alternative health mark pursuant to Directive 2002/99/EC (OJ No. L 51, 20.2.2007, p19) These Regulations require: g the marking and treatment of meat from animals sent for slaughter from premises in zones declared to control animal diseases; h that such animals are sent only to slaughterhouses designated by the Department; i the occupiers of premises from and to which untreated meat is moved to keep records of such movements. Regulation 2 defines “disease” as Classical Swine Fever, African Swine Fever, Swine Vesicular Disease, Rinderpest, Peste des Petits Ruminants and Newcastle Disease. Regulation 5 gives the Department the power to designate premises, slaughterhouses and game handling establishments. Regulation 6 prohibits the movement of restricted animals or restricted poultry for slaughter other than at designated slaughterhouse. Regulation 7 restricts the movement of carcases of restricted animals and birds. Regulation 8 requires that animals and meat subject to disease restrictions are kept separate from other animals, poultry and meat. Regulation 9 imposes restrictions at slaughterhouses and Regulation 10 imposes restrictions at game handling establishments where diseases are suspected or confirmed. Regulation 12 relates to the marking of meat from restricted animals and restricted poultry, Regulation 13 to the movement of such meat and regulation 14 to the supply of such meat and meat products. Regulation 15 requires the occupier of premises from and to which meat subject to disease restrictions is moved to notify the Department and Regulation 16 imposes record keeping requirements relating to the movement of such meat. Regulations 25 to 27 relate to offences, penalties and enforcement. Schedule 1 sets out the legislation under which zones and areas are declared in respect of the diseases to which these Regulations relate. Schedule 2 sets out the treatments which must be applied to restricted meat. Schedule 3 sets out the meat marking requirements for restricted meat and restricted poultry.

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