UK Offence Report

Provision against danger to navigation

article 10(2) of The Caledonian Maritime Assets (Port Ellen) Harbour Revision Order 2011

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

2 If CMAL fails to comply in any respect with the provisions of this article, it shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum and on conviction on indictment to a fine.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 10(2)?

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 Caledonian Maritime Assets (Port Ellen) Harbour Revision Order 2011, 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
£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.

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
27 June 2011
In force from
28 June 2011
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, made following an application by Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (“CMAL”), empowers CMAL to construct, maintain and operate in Loch Leodamais and on adjacent land at Port Ellen in Argyll and Bute, harbour works and harbour related facilities. Article 2 makes provision as to interpretation. Article3 authorises CMAL to construct works. The main works to be carried out to improve the harbour are at paragraphs(1) and (2). Paragraph(3) makes provision for future works. Article4 provides for the limits of deviation for the works and article5 authorises subsidiary works required in connection with the works under article3 or the harbour. Article6 authorises CMAL to dredge the harbour and the approaches to it. Article7 creates an offence of obstructing the works. Articles8 to 13 make provision for the control and regulation of tidal works. Article14 makes provision as to the time limit for completing the works under article3(1) and (2). Article15 provides for land within the harbour limits (some of which will have been reclaimed from the foreshore and seabed below high water) to be deemed to be operational land for the purposes of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act1997 and to lie within the area of Argyll and Bute Council if it otherwise would not do so. Article 16 amends provisions in the Act passed in 1846 for improving and maintaining the harbour of Port Ellen in the County of Argyll relating to directions to be given by the harbour master for the removal of vessels, increasing the penalty for failing to comply with a direction of the harbour master and providing that the responsibility of a master of a vessel is not diminished notwithstanding a direction of the harbour master. Article17 provides CMAL with a defence of due diligence against the commission of offences under the Order. Articles18 to 20 make saving provisions, including making clear that in carrying out any works or operations pursuant to this Order CMAL must obtain any other consent required for those works or operations under the terms of any other enactment. The deposited plans, sections and elevations and, for a period of one month after notice of any extension is published in a local newspaper, any consent given by the Scottish Ministers under article 14 allowing an extension to the period for the completion of the works may also be inspected, free of charge, at the offices of CMAL at Municipal Buildings, Fore Street, Port Glasgow PA145EQ between 10.00 and 16.00 (Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays).

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same 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