UK Offence Report

Offences by bodies corporate

regulation 35(1) of The Trade in Animals and Related Products (Scotland) Regulations 2012

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

35 1 Where— a an offence under these Regulations has been committed by a body corporate or a Scottish partnership or other unincorporated association; and b it is proved that the offence was committed with the consent or connivance of, or was attributable to any neglect on the part of— i the relevant individual; or ii an individual purporting to act in the capacity of a relevant individual, the individual as well as the body corporate, Scottish partnership or unincorporated association commits an offence and is liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 body corporate
Conduct
breaching the provision
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 body corporate 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 regulation 35(1)?

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 Trade in Animals and Related Products (Scotland) Regulations 2012.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

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 Bluetongue (Scotland) Order 2012
Revoked on
24 September 2012
Made
29 May 2012
In force from
1 July 2012
Extent
S

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

These Regulations implement the following four European Directives in Scotland:— Council Directive 89/662/EEC concerning veterinary checks in intra-Community trade with a view to the completion of the internal market (OJ L 395, 30.12.1989, p.13); Council Directive 90/425/EEC concerning veterinary and zootechnical checks applicable in intra-Community trade in certain live animals and products with a view to the completion of the internal market (OJ L 224, 18.8.1990, p.29); Council Directive 91/496/EEC laying down the principles governing the organization of veterinary checks on animals entering the Community from third countries and amending Directives 89/662/EEC, 90/425/EEC and 90/675/EEC (OJ L 268, 24.9.1991, p.56); and Council Directive 97/78/EC laying down the principles governing the organisation of veterinary checks on products entering the Community from third countries (OJ L 24, 30.1.1998, p.9). They also revoke and replace the Regulations specified in regulation 38 which previously implemented these Directives. They establish a system for trade between member States in live animals and genetic material (Part 2) (movement between member States) and for the importation of live animals and products of animal origin (which includes genetic material) from outside the European Union (Part 3) (importation from a third country). The European Union legislation required to be complied with before animals or goods can be released from control at the port of importation (the “border inspection post”) is listed in Schedule1. The Scottish Ministers are empowered to prohibit importation into Scotland of any animal or product in the event of a disease outbreak outside the United Kingdom (Part 4 – safeguard measures). The Regulations are enforced by the Scottish Ministers, local authorities, the Food Standards Agency and general customs officials in the circumstances set out in regulation 27. The Regulations establish various offences, punishable on summary conviction by a fine up to the statutory maximum or on conviction on indictment by an unlimited fine (or in the case of disclosure relating to customs information imprisonment for up to twelve months). A business and regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no new impact on the private, voluntary or public sectors is foreseen.

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 “commits 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