UK Offence Report

Offence and penalties

regulation 9(2) of The Sheep Annual Premium Regulations 1992

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

2 If any person for the purpose of obtaining the whole or any part of the premium or in purported compliance with any requirement imposed under regulation 5(5)–

a furnishes information which he knows to be false or misleading in

a material particular; or

b recklessly furnishes information which is false or misleading in

a material particular, he 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 person
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 (for the purpose of obtaining, 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, for the purpose of obtaining.

What would breach regulation 9(2)?

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 Sheep Annual Premium Regulations 1992.
  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
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (1992-11-13); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean an unlimited fine.

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 Sheep Annual Premium (Amendment) Regulations 1996
Revoked on
1 February 1996
Made
28 October 1992
In force from
13 November 1992
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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations, which come into force on 13th November 1992 and apply throughout Great Britain, revoke and re-enact with amendments the Sheep Annual Premium Regulations 1984 (S.I. 1984/2005), as amended. They make provision for the implementation of Commission Regulation (EEC) No 3007/84 (defined in regulation 2(1)) laying down detailed rules for the payment of premium to producers of sheepmeat. The general rules on the common organization of the market in sheepmeat and goatmeat are laid down by Council Regulation (EEC) No 3013/89 (OJ No L289, 7.10.89, p.1) and Article 5 of that Regulation provides for the payment of a premium to producers of sheepmeat. In addition to drafting amendments, these Regulations make the following changes of substance, they– a amend the definition of an “authorised officer” so as to include any person, whether or not an officer of that authority, authorised by the competent authority (regulation 2(1)); b require producers to keep, retain and produce a register containing specified information (regulation 4); c extend the powers of an authorised officer to inspect records including those kept by means of a computer and confer power to seize and retain such records (regulation 5(5)); d require a producer or an employee, servant or agent of a producer to give an authorised officer such assistance as he may reasonably request (regulation 6); e specify a rate of interest for the purpose of Article 6(5) of the Commission Regulation (regulation 7); f confer upon a competent authority power to recover a payment returnable under Article 6 of the Commission Regulation together with interest thereon (regulation 8); g specify the penalty for offences as a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale (regulation 9(3)). The Regulations– i prescribe the periods for the making of application for premium (regulation 3); ii require producers to keep, retain and produce a register (regulation 4); iii confer on authorised officers of the competent authority powers of entry for the purposes of the Regulations and require that assistance be given to them for the exercise of their powers as they may reasonably request (regulations 5 and 6); iv specify a rate of interest and empower competent authorities to recover payments together with interest thereon (regulations 7 and 8); v create offences and penalties (regulation 9).

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same 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