UK Offence Report

1 A person shall be guilty of an offence if without reasonable excuse, proof of which shall lie with him— a…

article 31(1) of The Plant Health (Forestry) (Great Britain) Order 1993

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 shall be guilty of an offence if without reasonable excuse, proof of which shall lie with him—

a subject to paragraph (2) below, he contravenes or fails to comply with

a provision of this Order;

b he contravenes or fails to comply with

a provision or condition of

a notice served, or licence granted, under this Order;

c he intentionally obstructs an inspector or any person authorised by an inspector in the exercise of his powers given by or under this Order.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

The prosecution must prove both that the conduct happened and that it was done with the state of mind the provision names (intentionally).

“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: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: intentionally; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

1 A person shall be guilty of an offence if without reasonable excuse, proof of which shall lie with him— a subject to paragraph (2) below, he contravenes or fails to comply with a provision of this Order; b he contravenes or fails to comply with a provision or condition of a notice served, or licence granted, under this Order;

What would breach article 31(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. Refusing to let an inspector onto premises they are entitled to enter under the Plant Health (Forestry) (Great Britain) Order 1993.
  2. Sending an official away, or telling staff to say nothing, where the power being exercised does not depend on anyone's consent.
  3. Physically blocking an examination, or removing something an officer has said they intend to inspect.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
Not determined
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

the level is stated but no money value is given: this instrument extends outside the United Kingdom, where the standard scale set by s.122(1) of the Sentencing Act 2020 does not run.

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
17 May 1993
In force from
1 June 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, which applies to Great Britain, revokes and supersedes the Plant Health (Forestry) (Great Britain) Order 1989 and implements the following Community legislation— 1 Council Directive 77/93/EEC (as amended by the instruments listed in Schedule 7) on protective measures against the introduction into the Member States of the European Community of organisms harmful to plants or plant products and against their spread within the Community; 2 Commission Directive 92/76/EEC (OJ No. L305, 21.10.92, p.12) recognising protected zones exposed to particular health risks in the Community; 3 Commission Directive 92/90/EEC (OJ No. L344, 26.11.92, p.38) establishing obligations to which producers and importers of plants, plant products or other objects are subject and establishing details for their registration; and 4 Commission Directive 92/105/EEC (OJ No. L4, 8.1.93, p.22) establishing a degree of standardisation for plant passports to be used for the movement of certain plants, plant products or other objects within the Community, and establishing the detailed procedures related to the issuing of such plant passports and the conditions and detailed procedures for their replacement. The Order— a prohibits the landing of specified tree pests and relevant material (defined in article 2(1) to mean any tree, wood, isolated bark, used forestry machinery, soil or growing medium) and lays down the conditions under which the landing of other relevant material may be permitted (article 3); b prohibits the introduction into protected zones of specified tree pests and relevant material and lays down the conditions under which the introduction of other relevant material may be permitted (article 4); c prohibits the keeping, storage, sale, planting, movement or other disposal of specified tree pests and relevant material within Great Britain (article 5); d prohibits the keeping, storage, sale, planting, movement or other disposal of specified relevant material in protected zones and lays down the conditions under which other relevant material may be kept, stored, sold, planted, moved or otherwise disposed of in protected zones (article 6); e lays down the conditions under which specified relevant material may be consigned to another Member State or to a protected zone outside Great Britain (article 7); f requires that specified relevant material is to be accompanied by a plant passport when landed in or moved within Great Britain following consignment from a Member State, introduced into or moved within the Dendroctonus micans protected zone, or consigned from Great Britain to another Member State or to a protected zone outside Great Britain (article 8); g requires that specified relevant material, when landed in Great Britain following direct consignment from a country not in the European Community, is to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate or industry certificate (article 9); h lays down certain exceptions from the requirements for phytosanitary certificates or industry certificates (article 10); i lays down various general provisions relating to certificates and related inspections (articles 12 and 13); j provides for the establishment of a register of forestry traders and lays down the procedure and conditions for registration (articles 14, 15 and 16); k lays down various general provisions relating to plant passports (articles 17 and 18); l requires the notification of the presence of specified tree pests and relevant material (articles 19 and 20); m enables an inspector to take precautionary or remedial action where tree pests or relevant material are or are likely to be landed in contravention of the Order or are likely to be present on premises (article 21); n enables an inspector to enter premises, to carry out examinations and take samples, and to take remedial action where the requirements of a notice served under the Order have not been complied with (articles 22, 24 and 26); o requires an inspector to obtain a warrant from a justice of the peace or sheriff before entering a dwelling house (article 27); p provides that anything that is otherwise prohibited under the Order may be done under authority of a licence granted in exercise of any derogation permitted by Directive 77/93/EEC (article 28); q provides that officers of Customs and Excise may detain tree pests or relevant material for examination by an inspector (article 29); r enables an inspector or other officer to require information in respect of specified tree pests and relevant material (article 30); s provides that the contravention of, or failure to comply with, any provisions of the Order (other than those relating to landing) shall be an offence punishable by a fine not exceeding £5,000 (article 31). (Any person who lands articles in contravention of a prohibition imposed by this Order with intent to evade such prohibition is guilty of an offence under section 50(2) of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979 (c. 2) and may be arrested. A person guilty of such an offence is liable, on summary conviction, to a penalty of £5,000 or of three times the value of the goods, whichever is the greater, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months, or to both; and, on conviction on indictment, to a penalty of any amount, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years, or to both.)

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

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