What would breach regulation 3 of The Welfare of Battery Hens Regulations 1987?

On these words an offence is committed where a person contravenes or fails to comply with any provisions of these Regulations. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Welfare of Battery Hens Regulations 1987, whatever the reason for doing it. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

3 A person who contravenes or fails to comply with any provisions of these Regulations shall be guilty of an…

Q: Is regulation 3 of The Welfare of Battery Hens Regulations 1987 a strict liability offence?

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.

regulation 3 of The Welfare of Battery Hens Regulations 1987

Revoked
Strict liability
Set by another provision
Housing, planning, heritage and land

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

3 A person who contravenes or fails to comply with any provisions of these Regulations shall be guilty of an offence under section
2 of the Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1968.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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: contravening a requirement of the instrument
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; other provisions of the same instrument use a mens rea word while this one does not (the Cundy v Le Cocq contrast).

What would breach regulation 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.

On these words an offence is committed where a person contravenes or fails to comply with any provisions of these Regulations.
Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Welfare of Battery Hens Regulations 1987, whatever the reason for doing it.
Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

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 2 of the Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1968.

penalty is that of the referenced enactment; not stated 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.

Environmental offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 July 2014
Covers unauthorised or harmful deposit, treatment or disposal of waste, illegal discharges to air, land and water, and the equivalent offences committed by organisations. It is the guideline that introduced turnover bands for corporate fines, so the size of the defendant company is a starting point rather than a mitigating detail.
Reduction in sentence for a guilty plea: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 June 2017
The sliding scale of credit for pleading guilty, from one third at the first stage of proceedings downwards.
General guideline: overarching principles All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 October 2019
The guideline a court uses when there is no offence-specific guideline, which is the position for the overwhelming majority of offences created by statutory instrument. It sets out how culpability and harm are assessed from first principles.
Totality: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales
How to sentence more than one offence at once so that the total is just and proportionate - frequently in point here, because regulatory prosecutions commonly charge several breaches of the same instrument.

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 Welfare of Livestock Regulations 1994
Revoked on: 10 August 1994
Made: 23 November 1987
In force from: 1 January 1988
Extent: Not stated

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

What the instrument is for

These Regulations implement Council Directive 86/113/EEC (O.J. No. L95, 10.4.86, p.45) which lays down minimum standards for the protection of laying hens kept in battery cages. The main requirements of the Regulations relate to the construction and size of battery cages; feeding and watering of the hens; insulation and ventilation of the buildings in which the hens are kept; daily inspection of the flock and of any automatic and mechanical equipment; taking of remedial action where the hens do not appear to be in good health and rectifying any defects in such equipment; cleansing and disinfection of the cages and the taking care of the hens by competent personnel (regulation 2 and the Schedule). Where four or more hens are kept in a cage, the minimum area for each hen must be 450 cm2. The height of the cage over 65% of the minimum cage area must not be less than 40 cm and not less than 35 cm at any point over that area. Those requirements of the Regulations which are set out in the Schedule apply to all battery cages as from 1st January 1988. However the application of the requirements set out in sub-paragraphs (a) to (h) of regulation 2 is postponed until 1st January 1995 in respect of cages which were built and put into use before 1st January 1988 and are not reconstructed after that date (regulation 2(2)). By virtue of regulation 4, the Welfare of Livestock (Intensive Units) Regulations 1978 cease to apply to laying hens kept in battery cages.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

Battery Farms Commons · 9 December 1993 · Mr. Soames
The hon. Gentleman is correct. We will issue guidance to the industry on the implementation of the Welfare of Battery Hens Regulations 1987. As the hon. Gentleman rightly says, they will come fully into force on 1 January next year. I can assure the hon. Gentleman—and I hope that he will assure his egg farmers—that those rules and regulations will be enforced in a sensible, pragmatic and consistent manner. If he…
Battery Farms Commons · 9 December 1993 · Mr. Pickthall
Does the Minister agree with the egg producers in my constituency who say that they will be put out of business if they are forced to implement the Welfare of Battery Hens Regulations 1987, which come into force next year, unless they contain a certain amount of flexibility? They will be forced into massive capital expenditure to make the relatively small changes to the floors of battery cages which many of their…
Animal Welfare Commons · 30 June 1994 · The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. Nicholas Soames)
I beg to move, That the draft Welfare of Livestock Regulations 1994, which were laid before this House on 14th June, be approved. How appropriate that you, Madam Deputy Speaker, should be in the Chair for this debate on animal welfare. The main purpose of the measure is to implement European directives and our commitments to the Council of Europe in respect of animal welfare. It is being introduced after full…
Welfare Of Livestock Regulations 1994 Lords · 15 July 1994
Schedule 1 on battery hens updates the previous Welfare of Battery Hens Regulations 1987, which implement the Community directive of 1986 setting minimum standards for battery hens. It may assist the House if I explain a complex problem which arose when the 1987 regulations were made. The EC directive requires 450 sq. cm. of floor space for each hen—this is the minimum cage area. Normally, hens are kept four or…

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 0.64.

Basis: the provision says a person is “guilty of an offence”; c10_offence_under_parent_act
Confidence: 0.64 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

This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
The Welfare of Battery Hens Regulations 1987 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
Housing, planning, heritage and landOther offences on the same subject
Offences created in 1987