UK Offence Report

3 Where— a in relation to a Northern Ireland fishing boat wherever it is, except when it is within the…

article 3 of The Sea Fishing (Marking and Identification of Passive Fishing Gear and Beam Trawls) Order (Northern Ireland) 2008 (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

3 Where— a in relation to a Northern Ireland fishing boat wherever it is, except when it is within the territorial sea; or b in relation to any other fishing boat which is within the Northern Ireland zone, but which is outside the territorial sea, there is a contravention of, or failure to comply with, any Article of the Regulation which is listed in column 1 of the Schedule, the master, the owner and the charterer (if any) of the fishing boat in relation to which the contravention or failure occurred 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 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 (Marking and Identification of Passive Fishing Gear and Beam Trawls) Order (Northern Ireland) 2008, 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
3 December 2008
In force from
31 December 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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order provides for the enforcement of Community restrictions and other obligations relating to the marking and identification of passive gear and beam trawls deployed by fishing vessels as set out in Commission Regulation (EC) No. 356/2005, of 2 March 2005, p.8, OJ L56, as amended. In the context of this Order passive gear means longlines, gillnets, entangling nets, trammel nets, drifting gillnets and any associated anchoring, floating or navigational gear. This Order applies to Northern Ireland fishing boats wherever they are, except within the territorial sea and to all other boats in the Northern Ireland zone, but outside the territorial sea. This Order comes into operation on 31st December 2008. Article 3 of the Order creates offences in respect of breaches of those articles of the Regulation referred to in column 1 of the Schedule to the Order. Penalties are specified for such offences in Article 4. Provision is made for the recovery of fines in Article 5. The Order confers powers of enforcement on British sea-fishery officers (Articles 6 and 7). Article 8 makes provision for the protection of British sea fishery officers and their assistants and Article 9 provides for offences and penalties should they be obstructed in the course of their investigations under this Order. Article 10 makes provision in respect of offences by bodies corporate, partnerships and unincorporated associations. Article 11 allows for the admissibility in evidence of records compiled for the purposes of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2847/93.

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