UK Offence Report

4 A person who without reasonable excuse contravenes regulation 3 of these Regulations shall be guilty of an…

regulation 4 of The Medicines (Hormone Growth Promoters) (Prohibition of Use) Regulations 1988

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

4 A person who without reasonable excuse contravenes regulation 3 of these Regulations shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £,000 or 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
contravening a requirement of the instrument
Fault element
Mixed — some elements strict, some not
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

The prosecution must prove the conduct, and - for those elements the provision qualifies (knowingly) - the state of mind it names. The remaining elements carry no fault requirement, so they are strict.

“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: the offence itself carries no fault word, but a duty it criminalises by cross-reference uses knowingly; which element that governs was not determined; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

4 A person who without reasonable excuse contravenes regulation 3 of these Regulations shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £,000 or on conviction on indictment to a fine.

What would breach regulation 4?

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. On these words an offence is committed where a person without reasonable excuse contravenes regulation 3 of these Regulations.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Medicines (Hormone Growth Promoters) (Prohibition of Use) Regulations 1988, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£0
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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
8 April 1988
In force from
13 April 1988
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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations re-enact the Medicines (Hormone Growth Promoters) (Prohibition of Use) Regulations 1986 which were made to implement in part Council Directive 85/649/EEC which was declared void by the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Case 68/86 on 23 February 1988. The Regulations prohibit the administration of hormone growth promoters to animals except for therapeutic treatment or for certain other purposes concerning fertility or reproduction (regulation 3). The Regulations implement in part Council Directives 81/602/EEC (OJ No. L222, 7.8.81, p.32) and 88/146/EEC (OJ No. L70, 16.3.88, p.16) concerning the use in livestock farming of certain substances having a hormonal action. The latter Directive was adopted by the Council to reinstate the provisions of Directive 85/649/EEC.

Read the full note and every offence in this 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