Maintenance of records by registered seller

regulation 5(7) of The Registration of Fish Sellers and Buyers and Designation of Auction Sites (Scotland) Regulations 2005

• Status not determined
• Requires proof of a state of mind
• Either way
• Health and safety, environment, waste and fisheries

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

7 Any person who knowingly or recklessly maintains or produces records which are false in

a material particular 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 (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 5(7)?

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. On these words an offence is committed where a person knowingly or recklessly maintains or produces records which are false in a material particular.
2. Entering a figure on a form or return that is known to be wrong under the Registration of Fish Sellers and Buyers and Designation of Auction Sites (Scotland) Regulations 2005.
3. Leaving out something the form asks for, where the omission is what makes the answer misleading.
4. Producing a document to an official that has been altered since it was issued.

Penalty

Mode of trial

Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court

Maximum fine

£10,000

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.

• Sentencing organisations: fines and the means of a corporate defendant All courts in England and Wales

  How a fine on a company is arrived at from its turnover. Relevant far beyond the guidelines that state it, because a very large share of the offences in this corpus can only be committed by an organisation.

• Environmental offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 July 2014

  Covers unauthorised or harmful deposit, treatment or disposal of waste, illegal discharges to air, land and water, and the equivalent offences committed by organisations. It is the guideline that introduced turnover bands for corporate fines, so the size of the defendant company is a starting point rather than a mitigating detail.

• Health and safety offences, corporate manslaughter and food safety and hygiene offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 February 2016

  Covers breaches of duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the regulations made under it, and food safety and food hygiene offences. Sentencing turns on culpability and on the seriousness and likelihood of harm risked, not only on the harm that happened.

• Imposition of community and custodial sentences: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales

  When a community order or custody is justified at all, and the presumption against short custodial sentences.

• Reduction in sentence for a guilty plea: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 June 2017

  The sliding scale of credit for pleading guilty, from one third at the first stage of proceedings downwards.

• General guideline: overarching principles All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 October 2019

  The guideline a court uses when there is no offence-specific guideline, which is the position for the overwhelming majority of offences created by statutory instrument. It sets out how culpability and harm are assessed from first principles.

• Totality: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales

  How to sentence more than one offence at once so that the total is just and proportionate - frequently in point here, because regulatory prosecutions commonly charge several breaches of the same instrument.

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

Status not determined

Made

26 May 2005

In force from

Not determined

Extent

Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

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

These Regulations provide for the implementation and enforcement of Article 9 of Council Regulation (EEC) 2847/93 (O.J. No. L 261, 20.10.93, p.1) and Article 22 of Council Regulation 2371/2002 (O.J. No. L 358, 31.12.02, p.59). The Regulations make provision for the registration of fish sellers (regulation 3). The Regulations provide that it is an offence for any person to sell first sale fish through a designated auction site if that person is not registered as a fish seller. It is an offence for first sale fish to be sold from a fishing vessel to an unregistered fish buyer (article 4). A registered fish seller is required to maintain records and it is an offence to fail to keep records or to produce them to a British sea-fishery officer at the request of that officer or to keep records which are false in a material particular (regulation 5). The Regulations make provision for the designation of auction sites (regulation 6). The Regulations make provision for the registration of fish buyers (regulation 7) and make provision for offences in relation to the purchase of fish by unregistered buyers (regulation 8). The Regulations require registered fish buyers to maintain records of the purchase of first sale fish and make provision for offences in relation to record keeping (regulation 9). The Regulations make provision for offences relating to the sale and purchase of first sale fish (regulation 10 and 11) and provide for penalties for all offences under the Regulations (regulation 12). The Regulations confer powers on British sea-fishery officers for the purposes of enforcing the Regulations or any equivalent provisions (regulation 13, 14 and 15). Provision is made for the protection of British sea-fishery officers in the exercise of their powers under the Regulations (regulation 16) and for an offence of obstructing such officers (regulation 17). Provision is made in relation to offences and proceedings (regulation 18). A Regulatory Impact Assessment in relation to these Regulations has been prepared and placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre. Copies of it can be obtained from the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department, Pentland House, 47 Robb’s Loan, Edinburgh EH14 1TY.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same instrument

• Sale of fish landed from a licensed fishing vesselregulation 10
• Obstruction of officersregulation 17(1)
• Registration of fish sellersregulation 3(7)
• Registration of fish sellersregulation 3(8)
• Sale of fishregulation 4(1)
• Sale of fishregulation 4(2)
• Maintenance of records by registered sellerregulation 5(6)
• Designation of auction sitesregulation 6(6)
• Registration of fish buyersregulation 7(7)
• Registration of fish buyersregulation 7(8)
• Purchase of fish by an unregistered buyerregulation 8(1)
• Purchase of fish by an unregistered buyerregulation 8(2)

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

• This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
• The Registration of Fish Sellers and Buyers and Designation of Auction Sites (Scotland) Regulations 2005 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
• Health and safety, environment, waste and fisheriesOther offences on the same subject
• Offences created in 2005