UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 16(2) of The Arable Area Payments Regulations 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

2 If any person—

a intentionally obstructs an authorised person (or any person accompanying him and acting under his instructions) in the exercise of

a power conferred by regulation 14; or

b fails without reasonable excuse to comply with

a request made under regulation 15, he shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

3 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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

exercise of a power conferred by regulation 14; or b fails without reasonable excuse to comply with a request made under regulation 15, he shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

What would breach regulation 16(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. Refusing to let an inspector onto premises they are entitled to enter under the Arable Area Payments Regulations 1994.
  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
£1,000
Standard scale
Level 3
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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
24 March 1994
In force from
18 April 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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations apply throughout Great Britain. As specified below, they implement and supplement provisions of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 1765/92 (“the Council Regulation”), which establishes a support system for producers of certain arable crops, and of the Commission Regulations made under it, namely Commission Regulations (EEC) Nos.2293/92, 2294/92, 2295/92, 2780/92, 334/93 and 2595/93. Regulation 2(1) defines these various Regulations, and the definitions include amendments to them. Under the support system established under the Council Regulation, producers of particular arable crops are entitled to receive a compensatory payment calculated according to the area which they have sown with such crops. The level of compensatory payment per hectare in a particular locality is determined (in accordance with Articles 4 and 5 of the Council Regulation) by multiplying an amount per tonne by the average yield per hectare for the production region in which the land lies. Member States are required to define production regions for the purposes of this calculation in accordance with the criteria set out in Article 3 of the Council Regulation. The production regions in the Great Britain are defined in regulation 3, and regulation 4 provides for yield calculation in relation to oilseed rape. Article 7 of the Council Regulation requires all producers claiming compensatory payments to set aside part of their arable land, unless they come within the exception for small producers, as defined in Article 8(2) of the Council Regulation. Except in circumstances justified by objective criteria laid down by Member States, the area of land which a producer sets aside in each production region must be in a specified ratio to the cropped land in that region for which he claims payment (Article 4(2) of Commission Regulation (EEC) No.2293/92), and land qualifying to be set aside must have been previously farmed by him for at least 2 years (Article 3(4) of the same Regulation). The circumstances in which producers are exempted from the first requirement are set out in regulation 7, and those in which producers are exempted from the second requirement are set out in regulation 6 and Schedule 1. To ensure protection of the environment, Member States are required to take appropriate measures relating to set-aside land (Article 3(3) of Commission Regulation (EEC) No.2293/92). Regulations 8 and Schedules 2 and 3 specify the requirements to be met in relation to land set aside and set out how a green cover is to be established on land set aside. Land sown with specified categories of oilseed only qualifies for compensatory payment when seed is sown in accordance with locally recognised standards (Article 2(1)(d) of Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 2294/92) and conforms to a quality policy established by the Member State in accordance with Article 3(1) of that Regulation. Regulation 9 sets out the qualifying requirements for cleaning, dressing and harvesting farm-saved rapeseed and the qualifying planting distances for particular types of rapeseed. The Regulations also— a prescribe the minimum size of an agricultural parcel for which certain compensatory payments may be claimed (regulation 5); b require farmers, collectors and processors to keep, retain and produce records (regulations 10 and 11); c specify the reductions in compensatory payments applicable to breaches of requirements relating to land set aside (regulation 12); d prescribe the rate of interest payable where a compensatory payment is recovered by the appropriate authority in cases where recovery does not result from an error by that authority (regulation 13); e confer on authorised persons powers of entry for the purposes of the Regulations and require that such assistance be given to them for the exercise of their powers as they may reasonably request (regulations 14 and 15); and f create offences and penalties (regulation 16). A compliance cost assessment has been prepared and has been deposited in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament.

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”; the provision states liability on summary conviction; the provision states a penalty in older drafting
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