UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Tuberculosis (Scotland) Order 2007

the instrument as a whole of The Tuberculosis (Scotland) Order 2007 (revoked)

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

Contravening this instrument is an offence under section

73 of the Animal Health Act 1981. 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 Tuberculosis (Scotland) Order 2007.

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 section 73 of the Animal Health Act 1981.

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
Status not determined
Made
1 March 2007
In force from
6 April 2007
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 revokes and re-enacts the Tuberculosis (Scotland) Order 2005 and the Brucellosis and Tuberculosis Compensation (Scotland) Order 1978 insofar as it relates to bovine tuberculosis. It incorporates existing control measures and compensation provisions in one instrument and introduces amendments to each. This Order implements Council Directive 64/432/EEC in so far as it relates to the operation of a monitoring and testing programme for bovine tuberculosis. The principal changes are the extension of the definition of carcase in the duty to notify disease so that it covers the carcases of all farmed and pet mammals (article 5) and the relaxation of the prohibition on vaccinating or treating animals for tuberculosis so that it can be done with the written consent of the Scottish Ministers (article 26). Article 3 extends the definition of disease and the power to slaughter in the Animal Health Act 1981 to cover tuberculosis. Articles 4 and 5 provide for notification of animals or carcases affected with or suspected of being affected with tuberculosis. Article 6 provides for veterinary inquiry and the taking of samples when an animal or carcase is affected with or suspected of being affected with tuberculosis and for restrictions relating to movement of animals and handling of milk. Article 7 defines premises for the purposes of articles 8 and 9. Article 8 provides for testing of animals before they move from premises in areas where there is a high incidence of tuberculosis and article 8 provides for testing of animals after they arrive on such premises. Article 10 regulates the application and payment of tests. Article 11 prohibits the movement of an animal which has had a test applied to it pending the result of that test, article 12 imposes a duty to report the results of a test to the Scottish Ministers and article 13 prohibits interference with or obstruction of tests. Article 14 sets out precautionary measures to be taken if an animal is affected with tuberculosis, including isolation of the animal and cleansing and disinfection. Article 15 provides for removal of an affected or suspected animal from a market etc and for isolation after removal. Article 16 allows notices to be served requiring that an animal which is or may be affected with tuberculosis to be kept under control. Article 17 provides for the service of notices of intended slaughter to be carried out under section 32 of the Animal Health Act 1981 and for movement restrictions pending slaughter. Articles 18 and 19 provide for compensation. Article 20 relates to the issuing of notices, licences etc. Article 21 imposes an obligation to facilitate the examination, testing and valuation of animals and article 22 provides for measures to be taken in the event of failure to comply with that obligation. Article 23 provides for marking of animals for identification purposes. Article 24 allows for the serving of notices restricting the movement of animals and article 25 restricts the movement of manure, slurry etc if a notice is served under article 24. Article 26 prohibits testing, vaccinating or treating an animal for tuberculosis without the consent of the Scottish Ministers. Article 27 imposes on laboratories a duty to notify positive test results. Article 28 provides that the Order shall be enforced by the local authority and article 28 deals with corporate liability for offences. Article 30 deals with revocations and article 31 is a savings provision. Failure to comply with any provision of the Order is an offence under section 73 of the Animal Health Act 1981. A Regulatory Impact Assessment has not been produced for this instrument because it has no impact on the costs of business.

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 0.70.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.70 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