UK Offence Report

5A Any person who, without lawful authority or excuse, proof of which shall lie on him,– a makes an entry in…

article 5A of The Movement of Animals (Records) (Amendment) Order 1989

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

5A Any person who, without lawful authority or excuse, proof of which shall lie on him,–

a makes an entry in

a record for the purposes of this Order which he knows to be false in

a material particular; or

b for those purposes recklessly makes an entry in

a record which is false in

a material particular, commits an offence against the Animal Health Act 1981.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
making a false or misleading statement
Fault element
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

The prosecution must prove both that the conduct happened and that it was done with the state of mind the provision names (recklessly).

“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: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: recklessly; qualified by lawful excuse (an element).

The defence, as drafted

5A Any person who, without lawful authority or excuse, proof of which shall lie on him,– a makes an entry in a record for the purposes of this Order which he knows to be false in a material particular; or b for those purposes recklessly makes an entry in a record which is false in a material particular, commits

What would breach article 5A?

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. Entering a figure on a form or return that is known to be wrong under the Movement of Animals (Records) (Amendment) Order 1989.
  2. Leaving out something the form asks for, where the omission is what makes the answer misleading.
  3. Producing a document to an official that has been altered since it was issued.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated here: this instrument amends another one, and the penalty for the offence is in the instrument being amended.

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
Status not determined
Made
23 May 1989
In force from
1 September 1989
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 further amends the Movement of Animals (Records) Order 1960 (“the 1960 Order”) by– a extending the requirements of the 1960 Order relating to movement records so that they apply to the movement of deer as well as to the movement of bovine animals, sheep, goats and pigs (article 2(a) and (f)); b requiring any person who sells any deer by private treaty and any person who conducts a sale of any deer by auction to make a record of certain specified particulars and to keep that record for a period of 3 years from the date of the sale (article 2(c) and (d)); and c providing that the making of a false entry in a record kept for the purposes of the 1960 Order is to be an offence against the Animal Health Act 1981 (article 2(e)).

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