UK Offence Report

1 Any person who, for the purposes of obtaining for the benefit of that or any other person part of, or the…

regulation 20(1) of The Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2003

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

1 Any person who, for the purposes of obtaining for the benefit of that or any other person part of, or the whole of,

a payment of less favoured area support under these Regulations, knowingly or recklessly makes

a statement which is false in any material particular, 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
making a false or misleading statement
Fault element
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove both that the conduct happened and that it was done with the state of mind the provision names (knowingly, knowingly or recklessly, recklessly).

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: knowingly, recklessly, knowingly or recklessly.

What would breach regulation 20(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. Entering a figure on a form or return that is known to be wrong under the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2003.
  2. Leaving out something the form asks for, where the omission is what makes the answer misleading.
  3. Producing a document to an official that has been altered since it was issued.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

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 Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2004
Revoked on
18 March 2004
Made
3 March 2003
In force from
25 March 2003
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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations, which replace the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2002, make provision for the purposes of implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1257/1999 on support for rural development from the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund and Commission Regulation (EC) No. 445/2002 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation No. 1257/1999. They apply to holdings in respect of which the Scottish Ministers are the competent authority under the Integrated Administration and Control System Regulations 1993 (regulation 1(2)). Applications for less favoured area support (“LFAS”) are to be made to the Scottish Ministers on a date which they shall determine each year. Failure to meet the deadline will result in reduction of the payment of support (regulation 3). Eligibility for payment of LFAS is dependent upon the applicant meeting the criteria set out in regulation 4. It can only be paid to an applicant who carries out an eligible agricultural activity (defined in regulation 2(1)) on eligible land (defined in regulation 6). No payment will be made where the amount of eligible land is less than 3 hectares (regulation 5). There is provision at regulation 7 to determine to whom payment should be made where a holding is transferred during a Scheme Year. LFAS is paid for eligible hectares on farms in Scottish less favoured areas at specified rates (regulations 8 and 12). The rate is fixed according to the fragility of the parish in which the applicant’s main farm lies (regulation 12 and Schedule 6). The area of land on which LFAS is paid is normally the area of eligible land which the applicant has, adjusted in accordance with a formula set out in regulation 9(1). The manner in which the area of eligible land is adjusted will depend on the grazing category of that land (regulation 9(2)). The grazing category is allocated according to the stocking density of the applicant’s land (regulation 9(3)). The manner of calculating the stocking density for different types of land is set out in regulation 9(4) to 9(12). However, where the applicant has a stocking density which falls above the maximum stocking density or below the minimum stocking density, then the area of land on which LFAS is to be paid is instead calculated in accordance with formulae set out in regulation 10. The maximum and minimum stocking densities are laid out in regulation 2. There is provision at regulation 10 (4) to allow Scottish Ministers to determine the total number of livestock units where an applicant has not been able to achieve the minimum stocking density because of slaughter in consequence of foot and mouth disease. Where more than 10% of the applicant’s livestock units are made up of cattle, the area of land on which LFAS will be paid will be increased in accordance with the adjustment set out in regulation 11 and Schedule 4. There are transitional arrangements for payments in 2003 (regulation 13). LFAS may be increased if an applicant is due to receive less under these Regulations when compared with a figure of 50% of any payment paid under the 1999 Regulations. In all cases, LFAS is subject to a minimum payment of £350 (regulation 14). There is also provision to reduce the payment to be paid under the transitional provisions where the forage area of the holding was reduced by more than 25% during any of the calendar years 2000, 2001 or 2002. For the 2003 payment, where an applicant has increased the amount of eligible land since being paid under the 1999 Regulations the Scottish Ministers will fix the amount of the 1999 payment for the purposes of calculations in regulation 13. Regulation 15 contains powers of enforcement. Regulation 17 provides for withholding or recovery of LFAS where there is a breach of the rules of the Scheme. Regulations 20 to 23 deal with offences and penalties. Regulations 24 to 26 deal with an applicant’s right of appeal against decisions taken by the Scottish Ministers. Regulation 27 makes consequential amendments to the Agricultural Subsidies (Appeals) (Scotland) Regulations 2000.

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