UK Offence Report

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

article 17 of The Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Order 1991

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

17 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 bovine animal or carcase under article 6(2)(c),

b contravenes article 5(1), 5(2), 6(3), 9, 12(1), 13(1), 14(1), 16(1) or 16(2),

c fails to comply with any notice served under article 6(4), 7(1) or 8(1),

d fails to comply with any condition of

a licence issued under article 6(5)(b), 7(1), 9, 12(2), 13(2)(b) or 14(1), or

e knowingly 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to comply with a notice or direction
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 (knowingly).

“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: knowingly; qualified by lawful excuse (an element).

The defence, as drafted

17 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 bovine animal or carcase under article 6(2)(c), b contravenes article 5(1), 5(2), 6(3), 9, 12(1), 13(1), 14(1), 16(1) or 16(2), c fails to comply with any notice serve

What would breach article 17?

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. Being served with a notice under the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Order 1991 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  2. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  3. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

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 Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Order 1996
Revoked on
1 August 1996
Made
1 October 1991
In force from
6 November 1991
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 revokes and re-enacts, with certain amendments, the provisions of the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (No. 2) Order 1988 as amended. The Order continues to provide for— a the compulsory notification of B.S.E. in bovine animals (article 5); b the investigation, examination, testing and sampling and marking of bovine animals and their carcases for this purpose (article 6(1) and (2)); c the imposition of requirements in respect of affected or suspected animals or carcases by service of a notice in Form A (article 6); d the prohibition on movement of other bovine animals by notice in writing (article 7); e the cleansing and disinfection of premises and equipment (article 8); f the application of section 32 of the Animal Health Act 1981 (slaughter of animals) (article 10); g the prohibition (subject to certain exemptions) on the sale, supply and use of specified feedingstuffs (article 12); h the prohibition on the sale, supply and use of milk from affected or suspected animals (article 13); i sampling of protein, offal or feedingstuffs (article 15), production of licences (article 16), offences (article 17) and enforcement (article 18). The changes of substance are— j the prohibition on movement of any protein derived from specified bovine offal except under a licence (article 9); k the seizure of carcases for the purpose of preventing the spread of the diseaseand the provision of compensation (article 11); l exemptions to certain prohibitions for research purposes (articles 12(2) and 13(2)(b)); m the prohibition on exportation for any purpose of specified bovine offal or protein derived from it from Great Britain to a member State of the European Community except under a licence (article 14).

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