UK Offence Report

13 Any person who, without lawful authority or excuse, proof of which shall lie on him— a defaces,…

article 13 of The Sheep Scab (National Dip) Order 1990

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

13 Any person who, without lawful authority or excuse, proof of which shall lie on him— a defaces, obliterates or removes any mark applied to any sheep under article 10 of this Order; b makes a declaration for the purposes of this Order which he knows to be false in a material particular or, for those purposes, recklessly makes a declaration which is false in a material particular; c contravenes any provision or this Order or any provision of a certificate of exemption, licence or approval issued or given under this Order; d fails to comply with any such provision or with any condition of any such certificate of exemption licence or approval; or e causes or permits any such contravention or non-compliance, 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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

13 Any person who, without lawful authority or excuse, proof of which shall lie on him— a defaces, obliterates or removes any mark applied to any sheep under article 10 of this Order; b makes a declaration for the purposes of this Order which he knows to be false in a material particular or, for those purposes,

What would breach article 13?

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 Sheep Scab (National Dip) Order 1990.
  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 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 Sheep Scab (Revocation) Order 1992
Revoked on
1 July 1992
Made
27 July 1990
In force from
1 September 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 makes provision for the periodical treatment of all sheep in Great Britain by effective dipping for the prevention of sheep scab, subject to certain exceptions (article 3). In addition the Order— a requires the owner or person in charge of sheep at the end of the dipping period to make and furnish a declaration as to dipping to the local authority (article 4); b subject to certain exceptions, prohibits the movement of sheep other than to or from a market, exhibition or show unless the sheep is accompanied by a declaration made in appropriate form by the owner of the sheep or his agent (article 5); c prohibits the holding of markets and movement of sheep to or from markets, exhibitions or shows unless a declaration in appropriate form has been made by the owner of the sheep or his agent, or the auctioneer or person in charge of the exhibition or show in respect of movement from a market and such declaration accompanies the sheep throughout the movement (article 6); d provides for the approval of premises for the temporary holding of slaughter sheep and imposes restrictions on the movement of sheep to or from those premises (article 7). The Order also contains provisions concerning— a the separation, during movement, of dipped sheep from other sheep and the keeping and production of declarations (article 8); b the powers of inspectors to— i enter premises, examine sheep and supervise dipping (article 9); ii mark sheep for identification purposes (article 10); iii require permission to take samples of sheep dip, dipping bath and fleece of sheep (article 11); iv take action in default (article 12).

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