UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 8(10) of The Common Agricultural Policy (Protection of Community Arrangements) Regulations 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

10 If any specified contributor— a fails to comply with Article 4 of Regulation 4045/89; or b fails to comply with a requirement imposed on him by notice published under regulation 3, he shall be guilty of an offence and liable, on summary conviction in Great Britain, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or, on such conviction in Northern Ireland, to a fine not exceeding £2,000 or, on conviction on indictment in Great Britain or Northern Ireland, to a fine.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

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.

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

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; other provisions of the same instrument use a mens rea word while this one does not (the Cundy v Le Cocq contrast).

What would breach regulation 8(10)?

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 Common Agricultural Policy (Protection of Community Arrangements) Regulations 1992 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
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£400
Standard scale
Level 3
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

this is the level 3 value when the instrument came into force (1992-03-20); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean £1000.

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

The Ministry of Justice records offences under this instrument against offence code 9997 — 09997 - Triable either way offences Common Agricultural Policy (Protection of Community Arrangements) Regulations 1992. That code may cover several provisions of the instrument, so a count against it is not a count of prosecutions under this provision alone.

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have their own code in the MoJ’s Outcomes by Offence data tool. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
18 February 1992
In force from
20 March 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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations, which apply throughout the United Kingdom, come into force on 20th March 1992. They re-enact with amendments the Common Agricultural Policy (Agricultural Produce) (Protection of Community Arrangements) (No. 2) Order 1973 (S.I. 1973/288), as amended, and the Common Agricultural policy (Protection of Community Arrangements) Regulations 1973 (S.I. 1973/424), as amended. The Regulations also make provision for the implementation and enforcement of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 4045/89 (OJ No. L 388, 30.12.89. p.18) ( “Regulation 4045/89”) on scrutiny by Member States of transactions forming part of the system of financing of the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund and repealing Directive 77/435/EEC. They also implement in part the obligations of the United Kingdom contained in Article 8 of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 729/70(OJ No. L 94, 28.4.70, p.13; OJ/SE 1970 (I) p.218) on the financing of the common agricultural policy. The Regulations— a enable the Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce ( “the Board”) to require by notice published in the London, Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes any specified person or connected person (these terms are defined in regulation 2) to keep and retain records as specified in the notice (regulation 3); b prohibit the export outside the United Kingdom of any specified commodity in respect of which a security is required by Article 32 of Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 3540/85 (OJ No. L 342, 19.12.85, p.1), as amended, unless such security is lodged with the Board (regulation 4); c confer upon authorised officers of an enforcement authority powers to enter land or vehicles, to inspect land, vehicles, animals or equipment, to inspect and take samples of specified commodities or other substances, to require the production of documents and information, to inspect documents (including those kept on a computer), to require the production of copies or extracts of documents and to seize and retain documents (regulation 5); d require the giving of assistance to authorised officers (regulation6); e designate authorised officers as the officials responsible for scrutiny under Regulation 4045/89 (regulation 7); f prescribe offences and penalties and provide a defence of due diligence (regulations 8, 9 and 10); and g enable the Board to recover any Community debt (regulation 11).

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