Offences and penalties

regulation 37(1) of The Products of Animal Origin (Import and Export) Regulations 1996

Revoked
Strict liability
Either way
Agriculture, plant health, food production and rural affairs

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

1 A person contravening any provision of these Regulations or any notice served under them shall be guilty of an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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: 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 regulation 37(1)?

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.

Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Products of Animal Origin (Import and Export) Regulations 1996.

Penalty

Mode of trial: Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine: £5,000
Standard scale: Level 5
Maximum prison (summary): 3 months
Maximum prison (on indictment): 2 years

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (1997-01-01); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean an unlimited fine.

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.

Animal cruelty: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 July 2017
Covers cruelty to and neglect of animals, and the associated disqualification and deprivation orders.
Health and safety offences, corporate manslaughter and food safety and hygiene offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 February 2016
Covers breaches of duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the regulations made under it, and food safety and food hygiene offences. Sentencing turns on culpability and on the seriousness and likelihood of harm risked, not only on the harm that happened.
Imposition of community and custodial sentences: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales
When a community order or custody is justified at all, and the presumption against short custodial sentences.
Reduction in sentence for a guilty plea: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 June 2017
The sliding scale of credit for pleading guilty, from one third at the first stage of proceedings downwards.
General guideline: overarching principles All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 October 2019
The guideline a court uses when there is no offence-specific guideline, which is the position for the overwhelming majority of offences created by statutory instrument. It sets out how culpability and harm are assessed from first principles.
Totality: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales
How to sentence more than one offence at once so that the total is just and proportionate - frequently in point here, because regulatory prosecutions commonly charge several breaches of the same instrument.

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 Animals (Divisional Veterinary Managers) (Wales) Regulations 2010
Revoked on: 1 April 2010
Made: 11 December 1996
In force from: 1 January 1997
Extent: Not stated

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

What the instrument is for

These Regulations, which extend to Great Britain, implement Council Directive 89/662/EEC concerning veterinary checks in intra-Community trade with a view to the completion of the single market (OJ No. L395, 30.12.89, p.13), Council Directive 90/675/EEC laying down the principles governing the organisation of veterinary checks on products entering the Community from third countries (OJ No. L373, 31.12.90, p.1) and Council Directive 92/118/EEC laying down animal health and public health requirements governing trade in and imports into the Community of products not subject to the said requirements laid down in specific Community rules referred to in Annex A(I) to Directive 89/662/EEC and, as regards pathogens, to Directive 90/425/EEC (OJ No. L62, 15.3.93, p.49). These Regulations revoke and replace in their entirety the Products of Animal Origin (Import and Export) Regulations 1992 (S.I. 1992/3298) (as amended) and the Products of Animal Origin (Third Country Imports) (Charges) Regulations 1992 (S.I. 1992/2911). The Regulations make provision for the designation of official veterinary surgeons to implement them and provide for enforcement by the local authority and by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Secretary of State for Wales. In addition, those Ministers and the Secretary of State for Health have powers to give directions to local authorities (regulations 2, 3 and 4). The Regulations also give powers of entry and inspection to enforce the directives (regulation 6), they confer a duty on local authorities to provide returns (regulation 7) and they require the notification of decisions with reasons (regulation 8). With respect to intra-Community trade, they make it an offence to export products of animal origin except in accordance with specified provisions (regulation 10). They provide for registration by, or notification to, the Minister of certain establishments which produce or process or supply for export products of animal origin covered by Council Directive 92/118/EEC (regulations 11 and 12). They provide for the inspection and checking of imports, make provision on the removal of documents and place duties on consignees (regulations 13 to 15). They regulate consignments posing a risk to health and provide for repeated irregularities by an exporting establishment in Great Britain (regulations 16 and 17). For third country trade, they make it an offence to import otherwise than through a border inspection post (regulation 20) and specify import procedure (regulations 21, 22 and 27). They regulate procedures in free zones and free warehouses and transhipment under customs control (regulations 23 and 24) and establish procedures for consignments posing a risk to health and illegal consignments (regulation 25). In relation to charges, the Regulations— a require the Minister or local authorities to make a charge for the performance of their functions relating to health inspection and control exercises in respect of products of animal origin (regulation 29); b provide for the calculation of the charges for the health inspection and control exercises (regulation 30); c state who is liable to pay the charge (regulation 31); d provide that goods cannot be released until charges have been paid (regulation 32); e require the Minister and local authorities, where requested to do so, to provide information relating to charging and to consider any representations made concerning the charge by any person notified and require local authorities to pass information regarding the calculation of the charges, together with any representations, to the Minister if he so requires (regulation 33); and f set out an appeals procedure (regulation 34). They provide a procedure whereby products from an area outside Great Britain suffering from disease can be prevented from entering Great Britain (regulation 35). They make provisions on offences and penalties (regulations 36 to 39) and disapply the provisions listed in Schedule 5 from imports to which these Regulations apply (regulation 40). A Compliance Cost Assessment has been prepared and placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Copies can be obtained from the Meat Hygiene 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

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

Foot And Mouth Commons · 3 May 2001 · The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. Nick Brown)
With permission, Mr. Speaker, I should like to make a statement on the foot and mouth outbreak. This is the 10th time that I have updated the House on the outbreak. Once again, I should like to provide details of the latest position on the disease, to set out the measures the Government are taking and to give right hon. and hon. Members the opportunity to raise points with me. As of midday today, there had been…
Foot And Mouth Disease Lords · 3 May 2001 · The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Baroness Hayman)
My Lords, with the leave of the House, I shall repeat a Statement made in another place by my right honourable friend the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The Statement is as follows: "With permission, I would like to make a Statement on the foot and mouth outbreak. This is the 10th time I have updated the House on the outbreak. Once again, I would like to provide details of the latest position on the…
Meat Imports Commons · 27 February 2002 · Mr. Morley
In a moment. It will assess the probability of infections with a class A animal disease. It is right to confront the issue of illegal imports, but we cannot use it as a diversion from other disease control measures. No hon. Member speaking in the debate has tried to do that, but some in the wider community always look for simplistic answers or a scapegoat—and the favourite scapegoat is illegal imports. We know…
Meat Imports Commons · 27 February 2002 · Mr. Breed
Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. In appreciation of your calling so many hon. Members, I shall be very brief. I want to consider two aspects of the Government's approach to the foot and mouth crisis. First, they acted urgently on certain aspects of the crisis when we learnt that there was a possible outbreak. One year ago, regulation was introduced quickly to prevent animal movements, to close footpaths, to put up…

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

This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
The Products of Animal Origin (Import and Export) Regulations 1996 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
Agriculture, plant health, food production and rural affairsOther offences on the same subject
Offences created in 1996