Powers of an officer of the Minister

Q: Is regulation 5(1) of The Cattle Identification (Enforcement) Regulations 1997 a strict liability offence?

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.

regulation 5(1) of The Cattle Identification (Enforcement) Regulations 1997

Status not determined
Strict liability
Dogs, animals, hunting and wildlife

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

1 In accordance with the second paragraph of Article
21 of Council Regulation 820/97/EC, an officer of the Minister may serve
a notice on
a keeper of animals on
a holding restricting the movement of cattle from the holding if he is satisfied that this is necessary for the proper enforcement of that Regulation; and any person who fails to comply with that notice 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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: 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.

What would breach regulation 5(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.

On these words an offence is committed where a person fails to comply with that notice.
Not doing what the provision requires under the Cattle Identification (Enforcement) Regulations 1997, by the time it requires it to be done.
Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial: Not determined
Maximum fine: Not determined
Maximum prison (summary): Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

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.

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.
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: Status not determined
Made: 31 July 1997
In force from: 22 August 1997
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

These Regulations create offences for breach of— Article 4.3 (imports of cattle from third countries) Article 4.5 (removal of ear tags) Article 7.1 (keeping a register) Article 7.3 (provision of information) and Article 7.4 (production and retention of the register) of Council Regulation 820/97/EC (establishing a system for the identification and registration of bovine animals and regarding the labelling of beef and beef products (OJ No. L 117, 7.5.97, p. 1)). They provide that the competent authority for the purposes of Articles 4.1, 4.5 and 4.6 of that Regulation is the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. They specify the form of a register and when it shall be filled in (regulation 3 and the Schedule). They give powers to inspectors and officers of the Minister (regulations 4 and 5), create offences of obstruction and provide for offences by a body corporate (regulations 6 and 7). Breach of the Regulations is an offence punishable— for obstruction, on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to both. for any other offence, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to imprisonment not exceeding three months or to both; on conviction on indictment, to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both (regulation 8). They are enforced by the Minister, the Secretary of State and the local authority (regulation 9). They revoke the Bovine Animals (Identification, Marking and Breeding Records) Order 1990 and parts of the Bovine Animals (Records, Identification and Movement) Order 1995. They amend the Suckler Cow Premium Regulations 1993 and the Beef Special Premium Regulations 1996 (Regulation 10). A Compliance Cost Assessment has been prepared and 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

Other offences in the same instrument

Enforcement of Council Regulation 820/97/ECregulation 3(1)
Obstructionregulation 6(1)

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 Cattle Identification (Enforcement) Regulations 1997 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
Dogs, animals, hunting and wildlifeOther offences on the same subject
Offences created in 1997