UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 16(1)(b) of The Farming with Nature Scheme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2025

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

b without reasonable cause fails to comply with

a requirement under regulation 15, shall 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 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 16(1)(b)?

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. Being served with a notice under the Farming with Nature Scheme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2025 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  2. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  3. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ 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.

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
29 May 2025
In force from
19 June 2025
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 establish the Farming with Nature Transition Scheme. The Scheme provides for payments to be made by the Department to eligible farm businesses which meet the eligible scheme actions and eligible supporting item requirements. The Scheme– specifies the duration of the scheme (regulation 3); specifies the eligibility criteria for eligible farm businesses (regulation 4); specifies the eligibility criteria for eligible scheme actions and eligible supporting items (regulations 5, 6 and 7); specifies payments available and criteria for receiving payments (regulation 8); specifies Title VI of Regulation 1306/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 will not apply to the scheme (regulation 9); specifies Article 19 of the Commissioning Implementing Regulation (EU)640/2014 will not apply to the scheme (regulation 10); specifies paragraph 1 of Article 32 of the Commissioning Implementing Regulation (EU)809/2014 will state on the spot checks will be 1% for the scheme (regulation 11); specifies the use of LPIS information; (regulation 12); provides the powers for withholding and recovery of overpayments (regulation 13); provides the powers of authorised persons (regulation 14); specifies the assistance to authorised persons (regulation 15); provides for the offences and penalties (regulation 16); specifies eligible scheme actions (Schedule 1); specifies eligible supporting items (Schedule 2); specifies payment rates for eligible scheme actions and eligible supporting items (Schedule 3); specifies native hedge plant species (Schedule 4); and specifies native tree species (Schedule 5).

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