Offences by bodies corporate, partnerships or unincorporated associations

regulation 17(4) of The Areas of Natural Constraint Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016

Status not determined
Mixed — some elements strict, some not
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

4 If an offence under regulation
16 committed by
a body corporate is proved—
a to have been committed with the consent or connivance of an officer, or
b to be attributable to the negligence of an officer, the officer, as well as the body corporate, is 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 body corporate
Conduct: breaching the provision
Fault element: Mixed — some elements strict, some not
Burden of proof: No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove the conduct, and - for those elements the provision qualifies (intentionally, knowingly, recklessly) - the state of mind it names. The remaining elements carry no fault requirement, so they are strict.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: the offence itself carries no fault word, but a duty it criminalises by cross-reference uses knowingly, intentionally, recklessly; which element that governs was not determined.

What would breach regulation 17(4)?

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.

Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Areas of Natural Constraint Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016.

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.

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.
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: 22 January 2016
In force from: 1 March 2016
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

These Regulations provide a domestic legal framework for the implementation of Article 31 of Regulation (EU) No. 1305/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and specifically the payment of an ANC allowance. These Regulations also provide for the implementation of Measure 13 of the Northern Ireland Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 approved on 25 August 2015 by Commission Decision CCI: 2014UK06RDRP002. The Regulations define the conditions of eligibility for an ANC allowance (regulations 3 to 5) and the rate at which it is to be paid (regulation 6 and Schedule 2). Regulation 7 provides for the exclusion of forage area in respect of claimants who had dairy cows on their holding in the minimum grazing period (1 April to 31 October 2015). Regulation 8 sets the maximum time (90 days) which beneficiaries have to notify the Department of a transfer of a holding. Regulations 9 and 10 grant the Department power to withhold or recover payments and take certain other action in the event of a breach under these Regulations and in certain other circumstances. Regulation 11 sets out how interest to be charged on amount owed to the Department will be calculated. Regulation 12 allows for payments owed to the Department by beneficiaries to be treated by the Department as debt. Regulation 13 provides for debts owed to the Department to be deducted from future payments to that beneficiary. Regulation 14 provides the powers of entry to land and premises for the purpose of enforcing these regulations to persons authorised by the Department. Regulation 15 sets out the powers of inspection of such authorised persons. Regulations 16 and 17 make it an offence to obstruct, fail to provide information without reasonable cause or furnish false or misleading information to a person acting to implement these Regulations and establishes the penalties which may be imposed.

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

This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
The Areas of Natural Constraint Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 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 2016