UK Offence Report

Contravention of Animal By-Products Order 1992

the instrument as a whole of Animal By-Products 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

Contravening this instrument is an offence under section

73 of the Animal Health Act 1981. The instrument itself contains no offence-creating words.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Not determined

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.

Classifier’s reasoning: contravention offences of this kind are strict as to the breach; the fault position is governed by the parent Act and was not read from it.

What would breach the instrument as a whole?

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 Animal By-Products Order 1992.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Set by another provision — the instrument states the penalty by reference to an Act or to another regulation
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

The instrument does not state a penalty itself. It sets one by reference to section 73 of the Animal Health Act 1981.

the penalty is in the parent Act, not in this instrument.

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
29 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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order implements Council Directive 90/667/EEC of 27th November 1990 laying down the veterinary rules for the disposal and processing of animal waste, for its placing on the market and for the prevention of pathogens in feedingstuffs of animal or fresh origin and amending Directive 90/425/EEC. The Order defines animal by-products (Article 3) and lays down rules for their disposal and processing. Waste food defined in, and required to be processed under, the provisions of the Diseases of Animals (Waste Food) Order 1973 and certain other products when not being used in feedingstuffs are excluded from the scope of the Order (Article 4). The main requirements of the Order are that— 1 the animal by-products referred to in Part I of Schedule 1 must, with certain exceptions, be disposed of by rendering in approved premises, by incineration or by burial. The exceptions are for by-products used for scientific purposes as defined in Article 3; for the use under the authority of a licence from the Minister for the production of material that has not been fully rendered; or for the use of certain byproducts in knackers' yards and certain other premises (Article 5); 2 the animal by-products referred to in Part II of Schedule 1 must, with certain exceptions, be disposed of by rendering in approved premises, by incineration or by burial. The exceptions are for by-products used for scientific purposes as defined in Article 3; for their use in knackers' yards and certain other premises; for their collection or use in the preparation of pet food, technical or pharmaceutical products in plants registered under Article 9; or for their use under the authority of a licence from the Minister for the production of material that has not been fully rendered (Article 6); 3 animal by-products must only be moved in accordance with the provisions of Schedule 2 (Article 7); 4 premises cannot be used for rendering (including fishmeal production) of animal by-products unless they are approved in writing by the Minister. The premises must meet the requirements of Part I or Part II of Schedule 4 according to the caterogy of the raw material handled (Article 8, which lays down the requirements and conditions for their approval); 5 persons using premises for collecting animal by-products for the preparation of petfood or for producing petfood (other than knackers), technical or pharmaceutical products must be registered in respect of those premises. The premises must meet the requirements of Schedule 6 (Article 9, which lays down the requirements and conditions for their registration); 6 persons receiving or using certain animal by-products on any premises for feeding to zoo, circus or fur animals, recognised packs of hounds or to maggots farmed for fishing bait must be registered in respect of those premises (Article 10, which lays down the requirements and conditions for their registration).

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 0.55.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.55 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