UK Offence Report

Failure to comply with licence conditions

regulation 8(1)(b) of The Dual-Use and Related Goods (Export Control) Regulations 1996

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

b fails to comply with any condition attaching to that licence or Community Licence as the case may be, shall be guilty of an offence and liable—

i on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, and

ii on conviction on indictment to

a fine or imprisonment for

a term not exceeding

2 years, or to both.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 do something the instrument requires
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; other provisions of the same instrument use a mens rea word while this one does not (the Cundy v Le Cocq contrast).

What would breach regulation 8(1)(b)?

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 doing what the provision requires under the Dual-Use and Related Goods (Export Control) Regulations 1996, by the time it requires it to be done.
  2. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

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

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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Dual-Use and Related Goods (Export Control) (Amendment) Regulations 1997 (revoked)
Revoked on
7 March 1997
Made
25 October 1996
In force from
15 November 1996
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations revoke and replace the Dual-Use and Related Goods (Export Control) Regulations 1995, as amended. They give effect to certain provisions of Council Regulation (EC) No. 3381/94 on the control of exports of dual-use goods, and make certain additional provisions relating to the export of dual-use goods. The changes of significance from the 1995 Regulations are— a Annexes I and IV to Council Decision No 94/942/CFSP on the control of exports of dual-use goods, as amended by Council Decision No. 96/613/CFSP, which are referred to in the Council Regulation and in these Regulations, are not reproduced as Schedules to these Regulations (they were reproduced as Schedules 1 and 2 to the 1995 Regulations); b dual-use goods which the exporter has grounds for suspecting might be used for purposes connected with weapons of mass destruction are no longer prohibited to be exported to other Member States of the European Community (their export outside the Community is prohibited by regulation 4(2)(c), and their export to another Member State for further export outside the Community can be prohibited under Article 4(1) of the Council Regulation and regulation 4(2)(d) of these Regulations); c the obligation to keep and produce documents relating to export licence applications contained in regulation 10(2) of the 1995 Regulations is limited in regulation 10(2) of these Regulations to documents relating to applications for Community Licences (that is, authorisations required by the Council Regulation); and d separate licences are required for the export of technology in entries 1E950, 9E990, 9E991 and 9E993 as they are already required for the export of technology in entries 3E990, 5E990 and 8E990. A number of consequential and drafting amendments of no substance have been made. Copies of the issue of the Official Journal of the European Communities which contains the current version of Annexes I and IV to the Council Decision (O.J. No. L.278, 30.10.96) can be obtained from HMSO.

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