UK Offence Report

Obstruction of officers

article 10 of The Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Control Measures) (Scotland) Order 2000

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

10 Any person who– a fails without reasonable excuse to comply with any requirement imposed by a British sea fishery officer under the powers conferred on him by virtue of articles 6, 7 or 8; b without reasonable excuse prevents any other person from complying with any such requirement; or c obstructs any such officer who is exercising any of those powers, shall be guilty of an offence, and liable– i on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum; or ii on conviction on indictment to a fine.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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); other provisions of the same instrument use a mens rea word while this one does not (the Cundy v Le Cocq contrast).

The defence, as drafted

10 Any person who– a fails without reasonable excuse to comply with any requirement imposed by a British sea fishery officer under the powers conferred on him by virtue of articles 6, 7 or 8; b without reasonable excuse prevents any other person from complying with any such requirement; or c obstructs any such

What would breach article 10?

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 Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Control Measures) (Scotland) Order 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
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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Sea Fishing (EU Recording and Reporting Requirements) (Scotland) Order 2010
Revoked on
31 October 2010
Made
13 January 2000
In force from
8 February 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.

This Order provides for the enforcement of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2847/93 establishing a control system applicable to the common fisheries policy (O.J. No. L261, 20.10.93, p.1) (“the Control Regulation”) in consequence of it having been amended by Council Regulation (EC) No. 2846/98 (O.J. No. L192, 8.7.98, p.4) (“Regulation 2846/98”). It revokes and re-enacts with drafting amendments and new provisions in implement of the amendments made by Regulation 2846/98 the Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Control Measures) Order 1994 (S.I. 1994/451) (“the 1994 Order”). The Order creates offences in respect of breaches of the provisions referred to in column 1 (and briefly described in column 3) of the Schedule to the Order (article 3). The amendments to the Control Regulation made by Regulation 2846/98 include in particular– a the requirement to keep a logbook in respect of amounts of fish of over 50kgs; b the requirement for vessels wishing to land catches into a Member State other than the flag Member State to comply with the requirements of a designated ports scheme (if any) or give 4 hours advance notification of their intention to land to the competent authorities of the Member State of landing; c new rules in respect of the submission of sales notes, transport declarations and take over declarations; and d the extension of certain requirements to third country fishing vessels. The Order provides penalties in relation to an offence (“a relevant offence”) under article 3 of the Order or any equivalent provision extending to any other part of the United Kingdom proceedings in respect of which were brought in Scotland by virtue of section 30(2A) of the Fisheries Act 1981 (c. 29) (article 4). Section 30(2A) was inserted by the Scotland Act (Consequential Modification) (No. 2) Order 1999, Schedule 2, paragraph 68(5)(a). The Order makes provisions in relation to the recovery of fines imposed in respect of a relevant offence or an offence under article 10 (obstruction of officers) (article 5). The Order confers on British sea-fishery officers enforcement powers in relation to fishing boats and on land. These include power to enter premises, to go on board fishing boats, to stop and search vehicles transporting fish, to examine fish, to require the production of documents, to search for and seize documents, to take a boat to the nearest convenient port and to seize fish and fishing gear (articles 6, 7 and 8). Provision is also made in relation to the liability of officers for anything done in the purported exercise of powers conferred by the Order (article 9). The Order creates offences and provides penalties in respect of obstruction of a British sea-fishery officer and makes provision in relation to offences committed by bodies corporate and Scottish partnerships and the admissibility of certain documents (articles 10, 11 and 12).

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