Contravention of The Sea Fish Licensing Order 1989

the instrument as a whole of The Sea Fish Licensing Order 1989

Revoked
Strict liability
Set by another provision
Education, social security, pensions and public services

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

Contravening this instrument is an offence under sections 1(7)-(8) and
11 of the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967. The instrument itself contains no offence-creating words.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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: breaching the provision
Fault element: Strict liability
Burden of proof: Not determined

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.

Classifier’s reasoning: contravention offences of this kind are strict as to the breach; the fault position is governed by the parent Act and was not read from it.

What would breach the instrument as a whole?

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.

Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Sea Fish Licensing Order 1989.

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 sections 1(7)-(8) and 11 of the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967.

the penalty is in the parent Act, not 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.

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 Sea Fish Licensing Order 1992
Revoked on: 13 November 1992
Made: 1 November 1989
In force from: 1 February 1990
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 Order consolidates with an amendment, and replaces, the Sea Fish Licensing Order 1983, as amended, “the 1983 Order” which prohibited fishing, subject to exceptions, by British fishing boats (including boats registered in the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands) in specified areas of sea for the principal species of sea fish, unless authorised by a licence. That prohibition on fishing did not apply to fishing by any boat whose length was not more than 10 metres, except in the case of a boat fishing for herring in specified areas. This Order amends the definition of “length” to that calculated in accordance with the rules specified in Article 2(1) of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2930/86 (OJ No. L274, 25.9.86, p. 1 (article 2). The prohibition on fishing extends to British fishing boats as aforesaid fishing in an area of sea specified in column 1 of Schedule 2 to the Order for a description of sea fish specified in relation to that area in column 2 of that Schedule unless authorised by a licence granted– a in the case of fishing by Isle of Man registered boats for herring in ICES VIIa (Irish Sea), by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, the Isle of Man; b in any other case, by one of the Ministers (article 3(1)). There is excepted from this prohibition fishing– a by boats whose length is not more than 10 metres, except in the case of a boat fishing for herring in specified areas; b for mackerel by handline (article 3(2)). The Order permits the retention on board a fishing boat of a quantity of one or more of the descriptions of sea fish specified in Schedule 3 thereto not exceeding 10% by weight of the total catch of sea fish on board the boat, the fishing for which is for the time being prohibited, caught in a specified statistical division of ICES VII as a by-catch in the course of lawful fishing for another description of sea fish. In consequence fish of descriptions not so specified, the fishing for which is for the time being prohibited under article 3 of the Order, must in all circumstances be returned to the sea forthwith in accordance with the provisions of section 4(9A) of the Sea Fish (Conservation Act) 1967 (c. 84) (inserted by section 20(4) of the Fisheries Act 1981 (c. 29), (article 4). The Order confers on British sea-fishery officers the powers of a British sea-fishery officer specified in section 8(2) to (4) of the Sea Fisheries Act 1968 (c. 77) for the purposes of the enforcement of the Order (article 5). The Order revokes the 1983 Order together with the Orders which amended it (article 6).

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 0.57.

Basis: the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence: 0.57 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 Sea Fish Licensing Order 1989 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
Education, social security, pensions and public servicesOther offences on the same subject
Offences created in 1989