UK Offence Report

Offences by bodies corporate, Scottish partnerships and unincorporated associations

regulation 14(1) of The Marketing of Vegetable Plant Material Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2014

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

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 a 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 14(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 Marketing of Vegetable Plant Material Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2014.

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
Status not determined
Made
23 April 2014
In force from
26 May 2014
Extent
S

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

These Regulations amend the Marketing of Vegetable Plant Material Regulations 1995 (“the 1995 Regulations”) in order to change the botanical name for tomato to reflect revisions to the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. This implements Article 2 of Commission Implementing Directive 2013/45/EU, which amends Council Directive 2008/72/EC (regulations 3 and 4). They also update references in the 1995 Regulations to provisions in the previous Directive on the marketing of vegetable propagating and planting material other than seed (Council Directive 92/33/EEC) to correspond to provisions in the codified version of that Directive (2008/72/EC) (regulations 3-5). The 1995 Regulations apply to the list of genera and species in Annex II to the Council Directive 2008/72/EC, as it is amended from time to time (regulation 4). Regulation 6 of these Regulations inserts a new regulation 14 of the 1995 Regulations, to make provision regarding the commission of offences by bodies corporate, Scottish partnerships and unincorporated associations. These Regulations extend to Scotland only. A Transposition Note is incorporated within the Policy Note which is available alongside this instrument on www.legislation.gov.uk, or from the Scottish Government - Agriculture, Food and Rural Communities Directorate, Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive, Edinburgh, EH11 3XD. No Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared in respect of these Regulations as they have no impact on costs to business.

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