UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Sea Fish (Prohibited Methods of Fishing) (Firth of Clyde) Order 2006

the instrument as a whole of The Sea Fish (Prohibited Methods of Fishing) (Firth of Clyde) Order 2006

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

Contravening this instrument is an offence under sections 1(7)-(8) and

11 of the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967. The instrument itself contains no offence-creating words.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
breaching the provision
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
Not determined

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.

Classifier’s reasoning: contravention offences of this kind are strict as to the breach; the fault position is governed by the parent Act and was not read from it.

What would breach the instrument as a whole?

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. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Sea Fish (Prohibited Methods of Fishing) (Firth of Clyde) Order 2006.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Set by another provision — the instrument states the penalty by reference to an Act or to another regulation
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

The instrument does not state a penalty itself. It sets one by reference to sections 1(7)-(8) and 11 of the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967.

the penalty is in the parent Act, not in this instrument.

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 Sea Fish (Prohibited Methods of Fishing) (Firth of Clyde) Order 2007
Revoked on
14 February 2007
Made
8 February 2006
In force from
14 February 2006
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 prohibits, subject to certain exceptions, all methods of fishing within certain areas of the Firth of Clyde from 14th February to 30th April 2006. The Order is made pursuant to Article 46 of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 850/98 of 30th March 1998 for the conservation of fishery resources through technical measures for the protection of juveniles of marine organisms (O.J. No. L 125, 27.4.98, p.1). A map showing the areas closed to fishing under this Order is appended to this note for illustrative purposes only. The Order remains in force until the end of 30th April 2006 (article 1(2)). Area 1 on the illustrative map is defined in article 3(1)(a). Area 2 on the illustrative map is defined in article 3(1)(b). The prohibition does not apply to vessels fishing within the closed areas exclusively with scallop dredges, creels and trawls used for fishing for Norway lobsters (articles 3(2) and (3)). The Order gives British sea-fishery officers powers to enforce the Order, including power to detain a vessel in port (article 4). It is an offence under section 5(1) of the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967 to use a fishing boat in contravention of a prohibition imposed by this Order. The penalties are fixed by section 11 of that Act. On summary conviction the penalty is a fine not exceeding £50,000. On conviction on indictment the penalty is an unlimited fine. In either case the court may also order forfeiture of any fish in respect of which the offence was committed and of any net or gear used in committing the offence. On summary conviction, if the court does not order the forfeiture of fish, it may impose an additional fine not exceeding the value of the fish. The Order revokes the Sea Fish (Prohibited Methods of Fishing) (Firth of Clyde) Order 2005. The Regulatory Impact Assessment relating to this Order is available 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

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 0.59.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.59 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