UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Sheep and Goats (Records, Identification and Movement) Order 1996

the instrument as a whole of The Sheep and Goats (Records, Identification and Movement) Order 1996

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 Sheep and Goats (Records, Identification and Movement) Order 1996.

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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Sheep and Goats Identification (Wales) Regulations 2000
Revoked on
1 September 2000
Made
10 January 1996
In force from
1 February 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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order amends the Movement of Animals (Records) Order 1960 and replaces its provisions in so far as they relate to sheep and goats (article 15). It also implements parts of Council Directive 92/102/EEC (OJ No. L 355, 5.12.92, p. 32) so far as it relates to sheep and goats. It requires notification to the appropriate authority of the fact of any sheep or goat being kept on a holding (article 3). It requires a keeper of sheep or goats to maintain a record of the number of animals on the holding, and their movement on or off the holding (articles 4, 5 and 6). Sheep and goats must be marked before being moved from Great Britain (article 7) or after importation into Great Britain if they are not already marked (article 8). If they are moved between holdings in Great Britain they must be accompanied by movement documents (in certain cases) and marked (articles 9 and 10). It is an offence to remove identification marks (article 11). Ear tags must conform to specified standards (article 12). Records are required to be produced to inspectors on demand (article 13). The Order is enforced by the local authority, except for article 5, which is enforced by the appropriate Minister (article 14). Contravention of the Order is an offence under the Animal Health Act 1981. A Compliance Cost Assessment for this order has been prepared and a copy placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Copies can be obtained from the Animal Health (Disease Control) Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Government Buildings, Hook Rise South, Tolworth, Surbiton, Surrey KT6 7NF.

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 0.54.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.54 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