UK Offence Report

13 A person shall be guilty of an offence against the Act who, without lawful authority or excuse, proof of…

article 13 of The Anthrax 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

13 A person shall be guilty of an offence against the Act who, without lawful authority or excuse, proof of which shall lie on him—

a contravenes article 4, 5, 6(3), 7(4) or 11(2); or

b fails to comply with any notice served under article 7(1), 7(5), 8, 10(1) or (2); or

c contravenes the provisions of any licence issued under article 7(4) or 8(1); or

d alters, removes or defaces any mark applied under article 6(2)(c); or

e causes or permits any such contravention or non-compliance.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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

A person shall be guilty of an offence against the Act who, without lawful authority or excuse, proof of which shall lie on him— a contravenes article 4, 5, 6(3), 7(4) or 11(2); or b fails to comply with any notice served under article 7(1), 7(5), 8, 10(1) or (2); or c contravenes the provisions of any licence issued under article 7(4) or 8(1); or d al

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. Being served with a notice under the Anthrax 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
Status not determined
Made
10 December 1991
In force from
1 January 1992
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 revokes and replaces the Anthrax Order of 1938. It provides for the extension of the definition of disease in the Animal Health Act 1981 to include anthrax and the definitions of animal and poultry to include any kind of mammal except man, and quail respectively (article 3). The Order requires notification of suspected disease (article 4) and provides for precautions to be taken pending the completion of a veterinary inquiry (article 5). It also provides for 1 veterinary inquiry as to the existence of the disease and the action to be taken (article 6), 2 declaration of an infected place and the requirements to which such a place is subject (article 7), 3 power to prohibit or control movement of animals (article 8), 4 disposal of carcases (article 9), 5 cleansing and disinfection of premises and vaccination and/or treatment of animals (article 10), 6 general provisions as to licences (article 11), 7 enforcement and offences (articles 12 and 13), and 8 revocation (article 14). Contravention of the Order is an offence under the Animal Health Act 1981.

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