UK Offence Report

Amendment of the Brucellosis (Scotland) Order 2009

article 3 of The Brucellosis (Scotland) Amendment (No. 2) Order 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

7 Where— a an offence under paragraph (6) 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to do something the instrument requires
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

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.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by lawful excuse (an element).

The defence, as drafted

fter paragraph (5) insert— 6 It is an offence for a person, without lawful authority or excuse, proof of which shall lie on that person, to fail to comply with paragraph (1), (1A), (2) or (3). 7 Where— a an offence under paragraph (6) has been committed by a body corporate or a Scottish partnership or other unincorporated association; and b it is prove

What would breach article 3?

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 Brucellosis (Scotland) Amendment (No. 2) Order 2014, 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
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
3 months

in Scotland a reference to a level is construed as referring to the standard scale as it currently stands (CP(S)A 1995 s.225(2)), not as it stood when the instrument was made.

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
12 March 2014
In force from
31 March 2014
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 (article 2) revokes article 2(8) of the Brucellosis (Scotland) Amendment Order 2014 (“the 2014 Order”), which amended article 7 of the Brucellosis (Scotland) Order 2009 (“the 2009 Order”). Article 3 of this Order amends article 7 of the 2009 Order, to make it an offence where owners or keepers of bovine animals who sell processed milk or milk products fail to take quarterly milk samples and submit those for testing for evidence of the existence of brucellosis. This Order corrects the error in article 2(8) of the 2014 Order by providing that the term of imprisonment on summary conviction for the offence may not exceed 3 months. No business regulatory impact assessment has been prepared for this Order as no further impact on business, charities or voluntary bodies 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