UK Offence Report

Obstruction of officers

article 11(1) of The Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Quota and Third Country Fishing Measures) (Scotland) Order 2002

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.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 fails without reasonable excuse to comply with any requirement imposed by

a British sea fishery officer under the powers conferred on such officers by articles, 7, 8, or 9;

b without reasonable excuse prevents, or attempts to prevent, any other person from complying with such requirement; or

c 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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

1 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 such officers by articles, 7, 8, or 9; b without reasonable excuse prevents, or attempts to prevent, any other person from complying with such requirement; o

What would breach article 11(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 Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Quota and Third Country Fishing Measures) (Scotland) Order 2002.
  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 Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Quota and Third Country Fishing Measures) (Scotland) Order 2003
Revoked on
10 March 2003
Made
11 February 2002
In force from
10 March 2002
Extent
Not stated

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 , which forms part of the law of Scotland only, makes provision for the enforcement of certain enforceable Community restrictions and other obligations relating to sea fishing by Community vessels and third country vessels set out in Council Regulation (EC) 2555/2001 (O.J. No. L 347, 31.12.2001, p.1) (“the Council Regulation”). The Council Regulation fixes total allowable catches and the quotas of Member States for 2002 and lays down certain conditions under which they may be fished (“Community quota measures”). It also authorises fishing by vessels of Norway and the Faroe Islands for specified descriptions of fish in certain specified areas within the fishery limits of Member States in 2002 and imposes requirements concerning fishing quotas and authorised zones, methods of fishing, the holding of licences and observance of licence conditions, the keeping of logbooks, the making of reports and similar matters (“Community third country fishing measures”). The Order makes provision for the purposes of Article 8 of and Annex IV, paragraph 2 to the Council Regulation (prohibition of landing of catches of unsorted herring at harbours where adequate sampling systems are not in place) as to the harbours in Scotland at which such catches may be landed (article 3). The Order creates offences in respect of breaches of the provisions of the Council Regulation referred to in column 1 (and briefly described in column 2) of Schedules 1 (Community quota measures) and 2 (Community third country fishing measures) to the Order (article 4). The Order provides penalties in relation to an offence under article 4 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 5). The Order makes provision in relation to the recovery of fines imposed in respect of such offences or an offence under article 11 (obstruction of officers) (article 6). The Order confers on British sea-fishery officers powers of enforcement 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 7, 8 and 9). 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 10). The Order creates offences and provides penalties in respect of the 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 11, 12 and 13). The Order revokes the Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Quota and Third Country Fishing Measures) (Scotland) Order 2001 (S.S.I. 2001/117), subject to a saving.

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