Mixing of species and separate stowage of northern hake

article 4 of The Sea Fishing (Northern Hake Stock) (Scotland) Order 2006

• Status not determined
• Strict liability
• 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

4 A person in charge of

a relevant fishing boat or

a Community fishing boat within the Scottish zone which fails to comply with the obligations imposed by Article

11 of Regulation 811/2004 (separate stowage) 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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

failing to do something the instrument requires

Fault element

Strict liability

Burden of proof

No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

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.

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

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach article 4?

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. Not doing what the provision requires under the Sea Fishing (Northern Hake Stock) (Scotland) Order 2006, by the time it requires it to be done.
2. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial

Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court

Maximum fine

£50,000

Maximum prison (summary)

Not determined

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

11 October 2006

In force from

14 November 2006

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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order provides for the enforcement in Scotland of the monitoring, inspection and surveillance provisions in Council Regulation 811/2004 (“the Council Regulation”) which establishes a recovery plan for the northern hake stock which inhabits the hake recovery zone as defined in Article 1 of the Council Regulation. The Order creates offences in respect of contraventions by certain persons of provisions of the Council Regulation concerning recording and accounting of time spent in the hake recovery zone, mixing of species, transportation of northern hake, the landing of northern hake where prior notification is required, the landing of northern hake at a designated port and the recording of information on catches of fish (articles 3 to 8). By virtue of article 7(4) the ports named in the Schedule to the Sea Fishing (Restriction on Days at Sea) Order 2006 are designated for the purposes of Article 9 of the Council Regulation. The Order makes a minor amendment to the Sea Fishing (Restriction on Days at Sea) (Scotland) Order 2006 (article 9). The Order provides for penalties (article 10) and for the recovery of fines imposed in respect of a relevant offence as defined in the Order (article 11). For the purposes of enforcing articles 3 to 8 of the Order powers are conferred on British sea fishery officers 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 12 to 14). Provision is made for the protection of British sea-fishery officers in the exercise of their powers under the Order (article 15) and for an offence of obstructing such officers (article 16). Provision is made in relation to offences committed by a body corporate, a partnership or an unincorporated association (article 17) and in relation to the admissibility in evidence of logbooks and other documents (article 18). A Regulatory Impact Assessment in the relation to this Order has been prepared and placed in SPICE. Copies can be obtained from the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department, Robb’s Loan, Edinburgh, EH14 1TY.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same instrument

• Obstruction of officersarticle 16(1)
• Recording and accounting of time spent in the hake recovery zonearticle 3
• Transportation of northern hakearticle 5
• Landing of northern hake where prior notification is requiredarticle 6(2)
• Landing of northern hake where prior notification is requiredarticle 6(3)
• Landing of northern hake at a designated portarticle 7(1)
• Landing of northern hake at a designated portarticle 7(3)
• Recording information on catches of fisharticle 8

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 Sea Fishing (Northern Hake Stock) (Scotland) Order 2006 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
• Health and safety, environment, waste and fisheriesOther offences on the same subject
• Offences created in 2006