UK Offence Report

Provision against danger to navigation

article 13(2) of The St. Ives Harbour Revision 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

2 Subject to the provisions of article 18 (Defence of due diligence) of this Order, if the Council fail to notify Trinity House as required by this article or to comply in any respect with a direction given under this article, they shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum and on conviction on indictment 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 notify or register
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 article 13(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. Not telling the authority about an event the instrument makes notifiable under the St. Ives Harbour Revision Order 1993, or telling them after the period allowed has run out.
  2. Assuming a notification made for another purpose, or by somebody else, satisfies this requirement.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland.

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
6 September 1993
In force from
27 September 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 enables the Penwith District Council to— a provide a boathouse and public toilets on land adjoining the West Pier St. Ives for the accommodation of the St. Ives lifeboat, and b provide a launchway for the lifeboat to the east of Wharf Road and extending into the bed and foreshore of St. Ives Harbour. The applicants for this Order are the Penwith District Council (“the Council”). The deposited plan and deposited sections referred to in articles 2, 4 and 10 of the Order may be inspected at any of the following addresses— Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR; Penwith District Council, St. Clare, Penzance, Cornwall TR18 3QW; Department of Transport, Hampton House, 20 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TJ. Offences and penalties of obstruction or interference with demarcation of the works, of failure by the Council to notify Trinity House in case of injury etc to the tidal works and of failure by the Council to comply with a direction by the Secretary of State as to steps for the prevention of danger to navigation both during construction and after completion of the tidal works are contained in article 11, article 13(2) and articles 16(2) and 17(2) respectively.

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