UK Offence Report

Penalties

regulation 28(1) of The Products of Animal Origin (Import and Export) 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

1 A person contravening any provision of these Regulations or any notice served under them 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
breaching the provision
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.

What would breach regulation 28(1)?

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. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Products of Animal Origin (Import and Export) Regulations 1992.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
3 months
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (1993-01-01); 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
Status not determined
Made
23 December 1992
In force from
1 January 1993
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 implement Council Directive 89/662/EEC concerning veterinary checks in intra-Community trade with a view to the completion of the single market (OJ No. L395, 30.12.89, p. 13) and Council Directive 90/675/EEC laying down the principles governing the organisation of veterinary checks on products entering the Community from third countries (OJ No. L373, 31.12.90, p. 1). The Regulations make provision for the designation of official veterinary surgeons to implement them, and provide for enforcement by the local authority with powers for the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Secretary of State for Scotland, the Secretary of State for Wales and the Secretary of State for Health to give directions to local authorities (Regulations 2, 3 and 4). With respect to intra-Community trade, they make it an offence to export products of animal origin except in accordance with Directives 89/662/EEC (Regulation 6). They provide for the inspection and checking of imports, make provision on the removal of documents and place duties on consignees (Regulations 7 to 9). They regulate consignments posing a risk to health and for repeated irregularities by an exporting establishment in Great Britain (Regulations 10 and 11). For third country trade, they establish border inspection posts (Regulation 14) and specify import procedure (Regulations 15, 16 and 21). They regulate procedures in free zones and warehouses and transhipment under customs control (Regulations 17 and 18) and establish procedures for consignments posing a risk to health and illegal consignments (Regulation 19). They give powers of entry and inspection to enforce the directives (Regulation 22) and provide a procedure whereby products from an area outside Great Britain suffering from disease can be prevented from entering Great Britain (Regulation 23). They place a duty to give reasons for decisions (Regulation 24) and a duty on local authorities to provide returns (Regulation 25). They make provisions on penalties and disapply the provisions in Schedule 4 from imports to which these Regulations apply.

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