UK Offence Report

6 Any person who, without lawful authority or excuse, fails to comply with article 4 of this Order shall be…

article 6 of The Specified Diseases (Notification) Order 1991

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

6 Any person who, without lawful authority or excuse, fails to comply with article

4 of this Order shall be guilty of 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 do something the instrument requires
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

6 Any person who, without lawful authority or excuse, fails to comply with article 4 of this Order shall be guilty of an offence against the Act.

What would breach article 6?

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. On these words an offence is committed where a person fails to comply with article 4 of this Order.
  2. Not doing what the provision requires under the Specified Diseases (Notification) Order 1991, by the time it requires it to be done.
  3. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

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
Status not determined
Made
7 May 1991
In force from
1 June 1991
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 requires certain persons to give notice of the specified diseases to the Divisional Veterinary Officer, an inspector or a constable (articles 4 and 5). It also amends the Movement of Animals (Restrictions) Order 1990 in relation to diseases specified in this Order. The Order also provides an offence for which the penalty on summary conviction is a fine or in the case of a second or subsequent offence, at the court’s discretion, imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month (sections 72 and 75(1) and (4) of the Animal Health Act 1981). This Order makes provision for the implementation of Council Directive 82/894/EEC (OJ No. L378, 31.12.82, p.58) as supplemented by Commission Decision 89/162/EEC (OJ No. 61, 4.3.89, p.48) which requires Member States to notify the Commission and other Member States of outbreaks of the first six diseases mentioned in the Schedule (and also various diseases already notifiable under animal health orders). This Order also applies to Viral Haemorrhagic Disease where it affects rabbits.

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 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