UK Offence Report

17 Any person who, without lawful authority or excuse, proof of which shall lie on him,– a contravenes or…

article 17 of The Poultry Breeding Flocks and Hatcheries (Registration and Testing) Order 1989

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

17 Any person who, without lawful authority or excuse, proof of which shall lie on him,–

a contravenes or fails to comply with any provision of this Order or with any provision of

a licence or certificate issued under this Order; or

b fails to comply with any condition of any such licence or certificate, commits an offence against the Act.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to comply with a notice or direction
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 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.

“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

17 Any person who, without lawful authority or excuse, proof of which shall lie on him,– a contravenes or fails to comply with any provision of this Order or with any provision of a licence or certificate issued under this Order; or b fails to comply with any condition of any such licence or certificate, commits

What would breach article 17?

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. Being served with a notice under the Poultry Breeding Flocks and Hatcheries (Registration and Testing) Order 1989 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  2. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  3. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

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 Poultry Breeding Flocks and Hatcheries Order 1993
Revoked on
30 August 1993
Made
19 October 1989
In force from
26 October 1989
Extent
Not stated

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

This Order prohibits (with two exceptions) a person from keeping a breeding flock on any premises or from using any premises as a hatchery unless his name is entered in the Breeding Flocks Register or in the Hatcheries Register in respect of those premises, both such registers being kept by the appropriate Minister (the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food or the Secretary of State for Scotland or Wales) for the purposes of the Order. Such registration will remain in force for a period of one year and will thereafter be renewed annually by the appropriate Minister unless following an inspection carried out on the premises, he is satisfied that the registered person has failed to comply with certain specified requirements relating to the keeping of a breeding flock on the premises or to the use of the premises as a hatchery (articles 3 and 4 and Schedules 1 and 2). These prohibitions do not apply in the case of (i) a breeding flock consisting of birds which are kept solely for the production of hatching eggs or chicks for use in the manufacture of vaccines or for research or other scientific purposes or (ii) any premises which are used solely for the incubation or hatching of eggs from which chicks are sold or supplied for such use or for any such purposes (articles 3(9) and 4(9). The Order requires a registered person to ensure that samples are taken in respect of the breeding flock or hatchery and are submitted to a laboratory for testing for the presence of salmonella (other than samples taken under the supervision of an officer of the Minister which are required to be given to that officer for testing for this purpose) (articles 6 and 8 and Schedule 3). A person registered in respect of a breeding flock containing any domestic fowls is also required to ensure that blood samples are taken from the fowls for testing, by or under the supervision of an officer of the Minister, forSalmonella pullorum(article 7 and Schedule 4). The Order also requires the person in charge of a laboratory to which any sample taken in respect of a breeding flock or a hatchery has been submitted to ensure that the test is carried out in a required manner and that the result of the test is reported to the person who submitted the sample and who, if he is not the person registered in respect of the flock or hatchery in respect of which the sample was taken, is required to pass the report to the person so registered (article 9). The Order also contains provisions which– 1 prohibit any tampering with samples (article 10); 2 require registered persons to keep records of samples taken and, of the results of tests on samples and to keep records of the movement of poultry, chicks and eggs onto and off any premises on which a breeding flock is kept or which are used as a hatchery (article 11); 3 prohibit (except under licence) the vaccination of poultry with any vaccine which is likely to affect the result of any test carried out under the Order on any sample taken from the poultry (article 12); and 4 enable the appropriate Minister to issue a certificate exempting any person from the sampling and testing provisions of the Order subject to such conditions as the appropriate Minister may think fit for preventing the spread of salmonella (article 13). The provision requiring the registration of a person who keeps a breeding flock on any premises or who uses any premises as a hatchery shall come into force on 2nd April 1990. Prior to that date the duties of a registered person under the Order shall be the duties of a person who is keeping a breeding flock on any premises or who is using any premises as a hatchery and whose name will be required to be entered in the Breeding Flocks Register or in the Hatcheries Register in respect of the premises when those provisions come into force (articles 1(2) and 2(2)). Until 1st June 1990 samples (other than blood samples) taken under the Order are required to be tested at laboratories which have the necessary facilities and personnel for carrying out the tests in accordance with the Order and after that date the samples are required to be tested at laboratories authorised in writing by the Minister for this purpose (article 2(4)). For the purposes of this Order “breeding flock” means any flock of poultry consisting of not less than 25 birds which are kept (or are being reared) for the production of hatching eggs or birds for sale or supply for breeding purposes or for the production of eggs or for meat and “hatchery” means any premises, with a total incubator capacity of not less than 1,000 eggs, on which the eggs of poultry are incubated or hatched and from which chicks are sold or supplied (article 2(1)).

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 “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