Enforcement notices

regulation 17(8) of The Alien and Locally Absent Species in Aquaculture Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012

• Status not determined
• Strict liability
• Either way
• Agriculture, plant health, food production and rural affairs

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

8 Except where regulation 20 (7) applies, it is an offence for

a person to fail to comply with an enforcement notice.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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

failing to comply with a notice or direction

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(8)?

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. On these words it is an offence to fail to comply with an enforcement notice.
2. Being served with a notice under the Alien and Locally Absent Species in Aquaculture Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
3. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
4. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

Penalty

Mode of trial

Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court

Maximum fine

£5,000

Maximum prison (summary)

Not determined

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.

• Animal cruelty: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 July 2017

  Covers cruelty to and neglect of animals, and the associated disqualification and deprivation orders.

• Health and safety offences, corporate manslaughter and food safety and hygiene offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 February 2016

  Covers breaches of duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the regulations made under it, and food safety and food hygiene offences. Sentencing turns on culpability and on the seriousness and likelihood of harm risked, not only on the harm that happened.

• Imposition of community and custodial sentences: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales

  When a community order or custody is justified at all, and the presumption against short custodial sentences.

• Reduction in sentence for a guilty plea: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 June 2017

  The sliding scale of credit for pleading guilty, from one third at the first stage of proceedings downwards.

• General guideline: overarching principles All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 October 2019

  The guideline a court uses when there is no offence-specific guideline, which is the position for the overwhelming majority of offences created by statutory instrument. It sets out how culpability and harm are assessed from first principles.

• Totality: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales

  How to sentence more than one offence at once so that the total is just and proportionate - frequently in point here, because regulatory prosecutions commonly charge several breaches of the same instrument.

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

7 September 2012

In force from

15 October 2012

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 Council Regulation (EC) No 708/2007 (O.J. No. L.168, 28.6.2007, p.1), as last amended by Regulation (EU) No. 304/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (O.J. No.L.88, 4.4.2011, P.1) concerning use of alien and locally absent species in aquaculture. Part 2 of the Regulations deals with permits (regulation 5), environmental risk assessments (regulation 9), contingency plans (regulation 10) and monitoring (regulation 11). It also makes provision for the movement of species listed in Annex IV to Council Regulation 708/2007 and the translocation of locally absent species within Northern Ireland or to Northern Ireland from another part of the United Kingdom to be restricted (regulations 6 to 8). Part 3 gives enforcement powers to inspectors and makes provision for appeals. A person found guilty of an offence under these Regulations is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or on conviction on indictment to an unlimited fine (regulation 23). Part 4 deals with miscellaneous provisions including consequential amendments to the Molluscan Shellfish (Control of Deposit) Order (Northern Ireland) 1972 and the Prohibition of Introduction of Fish Order (Northern Ireland) 1979. A Regulatory Impact Assessment in relation to the Regulations has been placed in the library of the Northern Ireland Assembly. It is available on the DARD website at www.dardni.gov.uk/index/publications/pubs-dard-fisheries-farming-and-food/alien-and-locally-absent-species-ria.htm.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

• Aquatic Animal Health and Alien Species in Aquaculture (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 Lords · 20 February 2019 · The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Gardiner of Kimble) (Con)

  My Lords, as indicated, this instrument extends to Northern Ireland only. I am most grateful to officials from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs who are here today to assist with advice and support. The island of Ireland has only 10 native species of fish, which is 40 fewer than in Great Britain and 80 fewer than continental Europe. With fewer species, in turn, it has fewer aquatic pests…

• Exiting the European Union (Aquaculture) Commons · 20 February 2019 · George Eustice

  My right hon. Friend will be aware that once we leave the EU, whether without an agreement or after the conclusion of the implementation period, the UK will be free to legislate independently in such areas, rather than having to do so in accordance with EU directives. The UK Government remain committed to restoring devolution in Northern Ireland. However, in the absence of a Northern Ireland Executive, UK Ministers…

• Exiting the European Union (Aquaculture) Commons · 20 February 2019 · The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (George Eustice)

  I beg to move, That the draft Aquatic Animal Health and Alien Species in Aquaculture (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, which were laid before this House on 15 January, be approved. This instrument extends to Northern Ireland only. The island of Ireland has only 10 native species of fish—40 fewer than in Great Britain and 80 fewer than continental Europe. With fewer species, it has fewer…

Other offences in the same instrument

• Contingency planregulation 10(2)
• Seizure of itemsregulation 15(7)
• Amendment, suspension or revocation of permit or noticeregulation 19(6)
• It is an offence for a person — a for the purpose of procuring the grant or amendment of a permit, - i to…regulation 21
• Requirement for permit to introduce alien species or translocate locally absent speciesregulation 4(1)
• Notifying movement of Annex IV species or translocation of locally absent speciesregulation 6(6)

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 0.90.

Basis

the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens

Confidence

0.90 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

• This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
• The Alien and Locally Absent Species in Aquaculture Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
• Agriculture, plant health, food production and rural affairsOther offences on the same subject
• Offences created in 2012