UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Spongiform Encephalopathy (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 1994

the instrument as a whole of The Spongiform Encephalopathy (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 1994

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 Spongiform Encephalopathy (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 1994.

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
10 October 1994
In force from
2 November 1994
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 amends the Diseases of Animals (Ascertainment of Disease) Order 1985 (S.I. 1985/1765) so as to extend the meaning of ‘disease’ to include spongiform encephalopathy (article 2) and amends the Specified Diseases (Notification) Order 1991 (S.I. 1991/1155) so as to make spongiform encephalopathy notifiable in certain circumstances and to extend the definition of “animals” for this purpose (article 3). The Order also amends the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Order 1991 (S.I. 1991/2246). It extends the controls on certain specified bovine offal to such offal derived from animals aged six months or under and applies the controls not only to the brain, spinal cord, spleen, thymus, tonsils and intestines of any bovine animal which died or was slaughtered in the United Kingdom and which was over six months old at the time (as did the 1991 Order), but also to the thymus and intestines of all bovine animals, with an exception for offal from animals under two months of age which have not been slaughtered for human consumption (article 4(2)). It also extends the provisions relating to notification of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (article 4(3)) and the condition restricting the use of milk from an affected or suspected animal imposed under Form A (article 4(8)). It implements Commission Decision 94/381/EC (OJ No. L172, 7.7.94, p.23) by prohibiting the sale, supply and use of feedingstuffs incorporating mammalian protein for feeding to ruminant animals (article 4(4)) and implements article 3(1)(b) of Commission Decision 94/474/EC (OJ No. L194, 29.7.94, p.96) by prohibiting the export of specified bovine offal and protein derived from specified bovine offal except for research purposes under the authority of a licence (article 4(5)). The Order also corrects some minor errors in the 1991 Order (article 4(6) and (9)). A Compliance Cost Assessment has been prepared and a copy has been placed in the library of each House of Parliament.

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 0.52.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.52 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