UK Offence Report

1 Any person who for the purposes of procuring the issue of a phytosanitary certificate or reforwarding…

article 5(1) of The Plant Health (Export Certification) (Scotland) Order 2004

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.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

a phytosanitary certificate or reforwarding phytosanitary certificate under this Order–

a knowingly or recklessly makes

a statement which is false in

a material particular; or

b intentionally fails to disclose any material information, is 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 (intentionally, 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, intentionally, recklessly, knowingly or recklessly.

What would breach article 5(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 Plant Health (Export Certification) (Scotland) Order 2004.
  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
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

in Scotland a reference to a level is construed as referring to the standard scale as it currently stands (CP(S)A 1995 s.225(2)), 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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Plant Health (Export Certification) (Scotland) Order 2018
Revoked on
1 June 2018
Made
27 May 2004
In force from
22 June 2004
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, which extends to Scotland only, makes provision for the issue of phytosanitary certificates and reforwarding phytosanitary certificates and for the provision of related services for the export of plants, plant products or other objects to third countries. Phytosanitary certificates and reforwarding phytosanitary certificates are required to accompany exports of certain plants, plant products or other objects to third countries. The Order prescribes fees for the issue of these certificates and for these services (article 4 and the Schedule). The services are performed in connection with applications received for the issue of phytosanitary certificates or reforwarding phytosanitary certificates in accordance with the provisions of the Plant Health (Great Britain) Order 1993 (article 3). The Order authorises an inspector to enter onto premises for the purpose of carrying out examinations under the Order (article 3(3)). Provision is made in the Order for offences in relation to procuring the issue of a phytosanitary certificate or reforwarding phytosanitary certificate (article 5). The fees prescribed by this Order are necessary to recover the costs expected to be incurred in the provision of the export services.

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