Offences: penalties

Q: Is regulation 33(1) of The Carcase Classification and Price Reporting Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2018 a strict liability offence?

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.

regulation 33(1) of The Carcase Classification and Price Reporting Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2018

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

33 1 A person guilty of an offence under— a regulation 21(3) (enforcement notices), b regulation 23 (European beef provisions), c regulation 24 (European pig provisions), d regulation 25 (notifications by operators), e regulation 26 (licences (bovine carcases)), f regulation 27 (authorised grading methods: (pig carcases)), g regulation 28(1) (records), or h regulation 29 (obstruction etc.) is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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: Legal burden on the defendant

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 gives a defence the defendant must prove, on the balance of probabilities. A legal burden of that kind can be read down to a merely evidential one under section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 where placing it on the defendant would be disproportionate (R v Lambert [2001] UKHL 37; Sheldrake v DPP [2004] UKHL 43).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

32 It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under these Regulations to prove that they took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of the offence by them or by a person under their control.

What would breach regulation 33(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.

Refusing to let an inspector onto premises they are entitled to enter under the Carcase Classification and Price Reporting Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2018.
Sending an official away, or telling staff to say nothing, where the power being exercised does not depend on anyone's consent.
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
Standard scale: Level 5
Maximum prison (summary): Not determined

in Northern Ireland a reference to a level is construed as referring to the standard scale as it currently stands (Fines and Penalties (NI) Order 1984 art.5(3)), not as it stood when the instrument was made.

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: 19 December 2018
In force from: 10 January 2019
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, which apply in Northern Ireland only, revoke and remake the provisions of the Beef and Pig Carcase Classification Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010, consequent to the repeal of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1249/2008 (OJ No L 337, 16.12.2008, p 3). The Regulations enforce— Article 10 of, and Annex IV to, Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ No L347, 20.12.2013, p 671), which relate to European Union scales for the classification of carcases; and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/1182 (OJ No L171, 4.7.2017, p 74) (the Commission Delegated Regulation); and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/1184 (OJ No L171, 4.7.2017, p 103) (the Commission Implementing Regulation) which sets out further details regarding the implementation of those scales. The Regulations relate to the carcases of adult bovine animals (being animals aged eight months or more) and pigs. Regulation 5 requires notifications to be made to the Department by operators of slaughterhouses which slaughter adult bovine animals or pigs. However, the regulations do not apply to small-scale bovine operators slaughtering fewer than 150 adult bovine animals per week as an annual average, unless they choose to classify bovine carcases (regulation 6); or to the operators of slaughterhouses at which fewer than 500 clean pigs per week as an annual average are slaughtered, unless they choose to classify pig carcases (regulation 13). The Regulations provide for a licensing system for anybody who visually classifies bovine carcases and for the licensing of slaughterhouses using automated grading equipment for classifying such carcases (regulations 9 to 11). Breach of the licensing requirements is an offence (regulation 26). The classification of pig carcases must be carried out using an authorised grading method and grading techniques operated by qualified personnel (regulation 15). Breach of this requirement is an offence (regulation 27). An operator may, instead of marking a pig carcase, keep a record concerning its classification (regulation 16) Operators of approved slaughterhouses are required to keep records relating to bovine and pig carcases respectively (regulations 12 and 17 and Schedules 3 and 4). Part 5 of the Regulations concerns enforcement, and makes provision relating to the powers of authorised officers, enforcement notices and criminal proceedings. Regulations 21(3) and 23 to 29 set out the offences under the Regulations, which are all punishable on summary conviction by a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale, except for offences under regulation 28(2) or (3) (false marks). In particular, regulations 23 and 24 provide that breach of specified provisions of European Union legislation is an offence, namely European beef provisions set out in Schedule 1 and European pig provisions set out in Schedule 2. The provisions specified in Schedules 1 and 2 include requirements for recording and reporting market prices for bovine and pig carcases respectively. A full impact assessment has been produced and is available on the DAERA website at the following link: https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/node/35792 .

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 0.72.

Basis: the provision states liability on summary conviction
Confidence: 0.72 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 Carcase Classification and Price Reporting Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2018 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 2018