UK Offence Report

Offences and Penalties

regulation 10(1) of The Bovine Products (Production and Despatch) Regulations 1997

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.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 shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable 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.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 10(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.

  1. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Bovine Products (Production and Despatch) Regulations 1997.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
3 months

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (1997-03-15); 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.

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 Bovines and Bovine Products (Despatch Prohibition and Production Restriction) Regulations 1997
Revoked on
1 August 1997
Made
19 February 1997
In force from
15 March 1997
Extent
E+W+S

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 remake with amendments the Bovine Products (Despatch to other Member States) Regulations 1996. Those Regulations implemented in part Commission Decision 96/239/EC on emergency measures to protect against bovine spongiform encephalopathy, as amended by Commission Decision 96/362/EC, in relation to the despatch to other member States of meat and other products from bovine animals slaughtered outside the United Kingdom. They made provision for the Minister to charge fees and contained provisions on enforcement, obstruction, offences and penalties. These Regulations additionally make provision controlling the production from bovine animals of gelatin, tallow and related products (regulation 3), and concerning the export and use of such products (regulation 5). They regulate the consignment of material containing bovine vertebral column to establishments approved under the Regulations (regulation 4). They correct an error in the amendment made to the Animals and Animal By-Products (Import and Export) Regulations 1995. They were notified in draft to the European Commission in accordance with Council Directive 83/189/EEC (O.J. No. L181, 26.4.1983, p.8) (as amended). 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 (BSE) 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 0.92.

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