UK Offence Report

Obstruction of officers

article 5 of The Third Country Fishing (Enforcement) Order 1990

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

5 Any person who, on any fishing boat which is within British fishery limits and to which a relevant Community provision applies— a fails without reasonable excuse to comply with any requirement imposed by a British sea-fishery officer under the powers conferred on British sea-fishery officers by article 4 of this Order; b without reasonable excuse prevents any other person from complying with any such requirement; or c assaults an officer who is exercising any of the powers conferred on him by article 4 of this Order or intentionally obstructs any such officer in the exercise of any of those powers shall be guilty of an offence and liable— i on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding 5,000; or ii 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
obstructing an official exercising a power
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 (intentionally).

“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: intentionally; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

nd to which a relevant Community provision applies— a fails without reasonable excuse to comply with any requirement imposed by a British sea-fishery officer under the powers conferred on British sea-fishery officers by article 4 of this Order; b without reasonable excuse prevents any other person from complying with any such requirement; or c

What would breach article 5?

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. Refusing to let an inspector onto premises they are entitled to enter under the Third Country Fishing (Enforcement) Order 1990.
  2. Sending an official away, or telling staff to say nothing, where the power being exercised does not depend on anyone's consent.
  3. Physically blocking an examination, or removing something an officer has said they intend to inspect.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Third Country Fishing (Enforcement) Order 1991
Revoked on
9 March 1991
Made
31 January 1990
In force from
2 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 note is not part of the Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order, which replaces and revokes the Third Country Fishing (Enforcement) Order 1989, makes breaches of specified articles of the Community Regulations set out in column 1 of the Schedule to the Order offences for the purposes of United Kingdom law where they occur within British fishery limits. The Community Regulations authorise fishing in certain specified areas within member States' fishery limits for specified descriptions of fish by vessels of third countries, namely, Norway, Sweden, and the Faroe Islands. The offences arise out of breaches of the provisions of the Community Regulations concerning methods of fishing, the holding on board of licences and observance of the conditions thereof, the keeping of log books, the making of radio reports and similar matters; all are triable summarily or on indictment. On summary conviction, the master of an offending vessel will be liable to a fine not exceeding the sum specified in relation to the offence in column 4 of the Schedule to the Order and, on conviction on indictment, to a fine (article 2). The Order confers powers of enforcement on British sea-fishery officers (article 4). Provision is made for the punishment of anyone found guilty of obstructing or assaulting an officer (article 5).

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 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