UK Offence Report

Offences, penalties and enforcement

regulation 23(1) of The Animals and Animal Products (Examination for Residues and Maximum Residue Limits) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016

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 shall be guilty of an offence if he—

a contravenes regulation 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 31(1), (2), (3) or (4) or any provision of

a notice served on him under these Regulations; or

b without the consent in writing of an authorised officer, defaces, obliterates or removes any marking made under regulation 21(2) (c) or attempts to do so.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
acting without the licence or authorisation required
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 (knowingly) - 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; which element that governs was not determined.

What would breach regulation 23(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. Starting the activity before the licence is granted, rather than on the day it takes effect under the Animals and Animal Products (Examination for Residues and Maximum Residue Limits) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016.
  2. Carrying on after a licence has expired, been surrendered or been suspended.
  3. Relying on somebody else's authorisation, where the provision requires the person doing the act to hold one.

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.

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
17 February 2016
In force from
31 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

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations replace provisions formerly contained in the Animals and Animal Products (Examination for Residues and Maximum Residue Limits) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998 and Amending Regulations. In addition regulations 9, 10, 15, 20, 21 22 and 29 have been amended to include unlicensed substances in order to correct a previous omission. The Regulations implement as respects Northern Ireland Council Directive 96/22/EC (O.J. No. L125, 23.5.96, p. 3) concerning the prohibition on the use in stockfarming of certain substances having a hormonal or thyrostatic action and of beta-agonists, and repealing Directives 81/602/EEC, 88/146/EEC and 88/299/EEC. The Regulations also implement as respects Northern Ireland Council Directive 96/23/EC (O.J. No. L125, 23.5.96, p. 10) on measures to monitor certain substances and residues thereof in live animals and animal products and repealing Directives 85/358/EEC and 86/469/EEC and Decisions 89/187/EEC and 91/664/EEC and provide for the enforcement of Regulation (EC) No. 470/2009 laying down Community procedures for the establishment of residue limits of pharmacologically active substances in foodstuffs of animal origin (O.J.No. L 152, 16.6.2009, p. 11) and Commission Regulation (EU) No. 37/2010 on pharmacologically active substances and their classification regarding maximum residue limits in foodstuffs of animal origin (O.J. No. L 15, 20.1.2010, p.1). The Regulations— a prohibit the sale, possession or administration to animals of specified substances (regulations 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7); b prohibit the possession, slaughter or processing the meat of, animals intended for human consumption which contain, or which have been administered with, specified substances (regulation 8); c prohibit the sale or supply for slaughter of animals if the appropriate withdrawal period has not expired and prohibit supply for slaughter or, subject to exceptions, the sale, of animals or the sale of animal products which contain unauthorised substances or an excess of authorised substances or unlicensed substances (regulations 9 and 10); d prohibit, subject to an exception, the disposal for human or animal consumption of slaughtered animals containing specified substances (regulations 11 and 12); e empower authorised officers to inspect and examine animals and to take samples and provide for the analysis of official samples (regulations 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22); f provide for offences and penalties and for enforcement by each enforcement authority as defined in regulation 2(1) (regulation 23); g provide specific defences and exceptions (regulations 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28); h specify responsibilities of processors (regulation 29); i deny to processors a due diligence defence in specified circumstances (regulations 30); j specify requirements relating to the keeping of records (regulation 31); k apply, with some modifications, provisions of the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 including the defence of due diligence (regulation 32); and l revoke other legislation (regulation 33 and the Schedule).

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