Prohibitions relating to tethers

regulation 2(1) of The Welfare of Pigs Regulations 1991

Status not determined
Strict liability
Set by another provision
Dogs, animals, hunting and wildlife

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

1 If any pig which is for the time being on agricultural land is tethered, any person responsible for tethering it shall be guilty of an offence under section
2 of the Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1968.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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: No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

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.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach regulation 2(1)?

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 Welfare of Pigs Regulations 1991.

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 section 2 of the Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1968.

penalty is that of the referenced enactment; not stated 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.

Animal cruelty: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 July 2017
Covers cruelty to and neglect of animals, and the associated disqualification and deprivation orders.
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: Status not determined
Made: 26 June 1991
In force from: 1 October 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

These Regulations apply on agricultural land. They prohibit the tethering of pigs (regulation 2) and the keeping of any pig in a stall or pen unless the stall or pen meets specified requirements (regulation 3) subject to certain exceptions (regulations 2(3), 3(4) and (5). These Regulations create offences under section 2 of the Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1968 for which the penalty on summary conviction is imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months or a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale (currently £1000), or both.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

Animal Welfare Commons · 30 June 1994 · Mr. Soames
If my hon. Friend will allow me to proceed in an orderly fashion, I shall come to that. The phase-out of stalls and tethers was first proposed by my hon. Friend the Member for Holland with Boston (Sir R. Body), who has a most distinguished record in this field. It was introduced by the Welfare of Pigs Regulations 1991, which allowed an eight-year phase-in period to the end of 1998—unlike the directive, which…
Welfare Of Livestock Regulations 1994 Lords · 15 July 1994 · Earl Howe
My Lords, I was just about to turn to what the Government propose to do and to press for in the Community. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, the directive is to be reviewed. In fact, it required the Commission to review the existing rules and to propose new minimum standards for alternative systems of husbandry by the beginning of 1993. The Commission's proposals have not yet been published. We shall be…
Welfare Of Livestock Regulations 1994 Lords · 15 July 1994
There are two important respects in which the requirements in these regulations go further than those in the directives. I refer, of course, to the ban on the use of veal crates and the phasing out of close confinement stalls and tethers for pigs. In the case of veal crates the ban was introduced in the Welfare of Calves Regulations 1987 and came fully into effect in 1990. The phase out of stalls and tethers was…
Pig Industry Commons · 15 December 1994 · Mr. Michael Colvin (Romsey and Waterside)
I am pleased, as a result of the luck of the draw, to speak so early in the Adjournment debate following the Consolidated Fund measures, when the House voted a further total of about £146 million for Government expenditure by various Departments of State. If my hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton (Mrs. Browning), the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, who is to reply to the…

Other offences in the same instrument

Prohibitions relating to stalls and pensregulation 3(1)

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 0.61.

Basis: the provision says a person is “guilty of an offence”; c10_offence_under_parent_act
Confidence: 0.61 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 Welfare of Pigs Regulations 1991 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
Dogs, animals, hunting and wildlifeOther offences on the same subject
Offences created in 1991