UK Offence Report

Declaration as to goods: powers of search

article 6(2) of The Export of Goods (Control) Order 1992

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

2 Any person who without reasonable excuse refuses to make

a declaration, fails to produce any goods or refuses to allow himself to be searched in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this Article shall be guilty of an offence and liable to

a customs penalty not exceeding one thousand pounds.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
obstructing an official exercising a power
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 reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised); other provisions of the same instrument use a mens rea word while this one does not (the Cundy v Le Cocq contrast).

The defence, as drafted

2 Any person who without reasonable excuse refuses to make a declaration, fails to produce any goods or refuses to allow himself to be searched in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this Article shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a customs penalty not exceeding one thousand pounds.

What would breach article 6(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. On these words an offence is committed where a person without reasonable excuse refuses to make a declaration, fails to produce any goods or refuses to allow himself to be searched in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this Article.
  2. Refusing to let an inspector onto premises they are entitled to enter under the Export of Goods (Control) Order 1992.
  3. Sending an official away, or telling staff to say nothing, where the power being exercised does not depend on anyone's consent.
  4. Physically blocking an examination, or removing something an officer has said they intend to inspect.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

'to a fine' with no stated maximum.

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
8 December 1992
In force from
31 December 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 Export of Goods (Control) Order 1991 (the “EGCO 1991”) and the amendments thereto. The changes (apart from minor drafting changes) it effects are as follows:— Export control is relaxed in relation to certain dual use goods as follows: Ceramic base materials, fluorinated compounds and non—fluorinated polymeric components (see Category 1 of Group 3 of Schedule 1) (“Group 3”). Some machine tools, inspection machines, robots and bearings (see Category 2). DRAM’s (controls are lifted), many electronic components, some vacuum tubes, basic materials and semiconductor manufacturing equipment (see Category 3). Many types of computers and peripherals (see Category 4). Digital cellular telephone systems, data packet switches and multimode optical fibre systems (controls are lifted) (see Category 5). Some sensors and lenses (see Category 6). Some submersibles, hovercraft, pumpjet systems, underwater TV systems and some manipulators (see Category 8). Certified gas turbine engines for civil aircraft (controls are lifted), civil aircraft (see Category 9). Export controls are extended to— certain dual use goods for nuclear facilities and technology relating to them: those entries in Group 3 with numbers having a`2' in the third position e.g., 1C216 to all destinations the following human and animal pathogens and chemical plant and biological equipment and technology relating to them to all destinations: entries in Group 3 numbered 1C351, 1C352, 1C353, 2B350, 2B351, 2B352, 1E001, 2E001 and 2E002. Compared to the list in Schedule 1 Part II of the EGCO 1991, the format and classification system for entries in the new lists has been changed. These changes are intended, where possible, to place controls on similar goods close to one another in the lists, and to enable changes to be made to the lists easily in future. In the new lists goods are now specified by reference to a Category, sub—Category, Entry, head or sub—head. An example from the controls to illustrate this is 3A001a.4., where 3 is the Category, A is the sub—Category, 001 is the entry, a. is the head and 4 is the sub—head. The PL entries from the EGCO 1991 have been moved, in some cases with modification, as follows: The structure of the new lists combined with the lifting of controls on many goods means that it is not practical to correlate and note all the controls with prefix IL in the EGCO 1991 list with the new lists. However, the changes have included moving certain of those controls into the Categories of Group 3 of the new list as follows: Group 2 of the new list has been renumbered and its contents restricted principally to items specially designed for use in the nuclear industry. Most nuclear items that have other uses are included in Group 3 of the new list as dual use industrial items. The controls on the export of firearms (see Article 3) have been changed as a result of the Firearms Acts (Amendment) Regulations 1992 (1992/2823) and to implement Council Directive 91/477/EEC. Persons who export under an Open General export Licence henceforth will, unless the licence states to the contrary, be required to register with the DTI before, or soon after doing so (see Article 8), and to keep records for a specified period. Copies of the standards and recommendations referred to in this Order may be obtained from or through the British Standards Institution (BSI) at 3 Linford Wood, Milton Keynes, MK14 6LE, other than the ICAO and TCSEC standards mentioned at entries 5A001f., 5A002 and 6A008f., which may be obtained from the ICAO at 1000 Sherbrooke Street, Suite 400, Montreal, Canada H3A 2RZ, and the TCSEC, Technical Guidelines Division, National Computer Security Center, Ft. George G. Meade MD 20755–6000, U.S.A, respectively. By way of assistance to the reader, and for convenience only, certain defined terms have been highlighted in Part III of Schedule 1 in bold type, and an index thereto, technical notes and certain cross—references have been included. These should not be treated as comprehensive. Any particular goods may fall within more than one description in Schedule 1 to the Order. In such a case each prohibition (taking effect by such inclusion in that Schedule and the related provisions of article 2) applies to the export of the goods. This may mean that different entries prohibit the export of the goods to different countries.

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