UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 8(1) of The Transport of Animals (Cleansing and Disinfection) (Scotland) Regulations 2000

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

1 Any person who– a contravenes, or fails to comply with– i any of the provisions of these Regulations; or ii a notice or requirement contained in a notice; or b fails without reasonable excuse to comply with any requirement imposed by an inspector in exercise of powers under regulation 6(1) above or obstructs any such officer in the exercise of any of those powers, 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
obstructing an official exercising a power
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

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.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

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

i a notice or requirement contained in a notice; or b fails without reasonable excuse to comply with any requirement imposed by an inspector in exercise of powers under regulation 6(1) above or obstructs any such officer in the exercise of any of those powers, shall be guilty of an offence.

What would breach regulation 8(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. Refusing to let an inspector onto premises they are entitled to enter under the Transport of Animals (Cleansing and Disinfection) (Scotland) Regulations 2000.
  2. Sending an official away, or telling staff to say nothing, where the power being exercised does not depend on anyone's consent.
  3. Physically blocking an examination, or removing something an officer has said they intend to inspect.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ 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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Transport of Animals (Cleansing and Disinfection) (Scotland) Regulations 2005
Revoked on
27 January 2006
Made
1 June 2000
In force from
27 June 2000
Extent
S

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

What the instrument is for

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

These Regulations revoke and replace, with changes, the instruments dealing with the cleansing and disinfection of means of transport for animals set out in Schedule 3. They implement paragraph 8 of Chapter I of the Annex to Council Directive 91/628/EEC on the protection of animals during transport (O.J. No. L340, 11.12.91, p.17) which was previously implemented by paragraph 26 of Schedule 1 to the Welfare of Animals (Transport) Order 1997, (S.I. 1997/1480). They also implement Article 12.1(a), second indent, of Council Directive 64/432EEC on health problems affecting intra-Community trade in bovine animals and swine (that Directive was consolidated in the Annex to Council Directive 97/12/EC (O.J. No. L109, 25.4.97, p.1). They specify that, after the transport of any hoofed animals, and domestic fowl, turkeys, geese, ducks, guinea-fowls, quails, pigeons, pheasants, partridges and ratites, the means of transport must be cleansed and disinfected in accordance with Schedule 1 before it is used again to transport those animals (regulation 3(2) and (4)). They also specify that, even if this has been done, the means of transport must be cleansed and disinfected before those animals are transported if the means of transport has become soiled so as to cause a risk of transmission of disease (regulation 3(3)). Following a journey, they require a means of transport to be cleansed and disinfected as soon as reasonably practicable, but in any event within not more than 24 hours (regulation 3(5)). They require any person transporting such animals to remove dead animals, parts of animals, soiled bedding and excreta from the means of transport as soon as practicable (article 3(6)). There are exceptions set out in Schedule 2 relating to journeys on a single enterprise, transport of certain horses and journeys between the same two points. In these cases, and for all other animals and birds, there is a requirement to ensure that they are loaded on to a means of transport which has been cleansed and, if necessary, disinfected and that dead animals, parts of animals, soiled bedding and excreta are removed from the means of transport as soon as practicable (regulation 4). Regulation 5 sets out how material removed from a means of transport in accordance with Schedule 1 must be disposed of. Regulation 6 provides for powers to inspectors in particular, to serve a notice requiring a means of transport to be cleansed and disinfected. The Regulations are enforced by the local authority (regulation 7). Regulation 8 sets out offences and penalties. The maximum penalty for an offence under the Regulations is the statutory maximum (currently £5,000). The Regulations revoke those provisions set out in Part I of Schedule 3 and amend the provisions set out in Part II of that Schedule. A regulatory impact assessment has been prepared and placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre. Copies can be obtained from the Scottish Executive Rural Affairs Department, Division G4, Room 350, Pentland House, 47 Robb’s Loan, Edinburgh EH14 1TY.

Read the full note and every offence in this 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