UK Offence Report

Amendment of the principal Regulations

regulation 5 of The Sea Fishing (Days in Port) (Amendment) Regulations 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

5 In regulation 5 thereof (offences) there shall be substituted for paragraph (1) the following paragraphs— 1 Where a vessel to which these Regulations apply does not remain in port in accordance with regulation 4(1) or 4(5), its master, owner and charterer (if any) shall each, in the absence of a reasonable excuse, be guilty of an offence. 1A Any master, owner or charterer of a vessel to which these Regulations apply who in purported compliance with regulation 4(3), 4(4) or 4(5) furnishes any information which he knows to be false in a material particular or recklessly furnishes any information which is false in a material particular shall be guilty of an offence. .

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 master
Conduct
making a false or misleading statement
Fault element
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove both that the conduct happened and that it was done with the state of mind the provision names (recklessly).

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

Classifier’s reasoning: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: recklessly.

What would breach regulation 5?

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 Sea Fishing (Days in Port) (Amendment) Regulations 1991.
  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 here: this instrument amends another one, and the penalty for the offence is in the instrument being amended.

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
26 February 1991
In force from
1 March 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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations amend the Sea Fishing (Days in Port) Regulations 1991 (“the principal Regulations”) which make provision for the enforcement throughout the United Kingdom of Article 13 of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3926/90, fixing for certain fish stocks and groups of fish stocks, the total allowable catches for 1991 and certain conditions under which they may be fished. The present Regulations make provision for fishing vessels to be exempted from the requirement in the principal Regulations to remain in port for 8 consecutive days in each calendar month (regulation 4). The amendment is consequent upon a decision of the Commission of the European Communities relating to fishing gear. The decision was communicated to the United Kingdom authorities by letter dated 13th February 1991. Copies of the letter are available from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR, the Scottish Office Agriculture and Fisheries Department, Pentland House, 47 Robb’s Loan, Edinburgh EH14 1TW, the Welsh Office Agriculture Department, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF1 3NQ and the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland, Hut 5, Castle Grounds, Stormont, Belfast BT4 3TA. The Regulations also insert two new definitions in the principal Regulations (regulation 3) and make some drafting corrections (regulations 5 and 6).

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.

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