UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 9(1) of The Bovine Hides Regulations 1997

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

1 It shall be an offence for a person— a without reasonable excuse, to fail to comply with the provisions of regulations 4 to 7 above; b intentionally to obstruct an authorised person, or a person acting under his instructions, in the exercise of a power conferred by regulation 8 above; c without reasonable excuse, to fail to comply with a request made under regulation 8(3)(a) above; or d knowingly or recklessly to furnish any information that he is required to provide to the appropriate Minister under these Regulations which is false or misleading in a material particular.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
obstructing an official exercising a power
Fault element
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

The prosecution must prove both that the conduct happened and that it was done with the state of mind the provision names (intentionally, knowingly, knowingly or recklessly, recklessly).

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: knowingly, intentionally, recklessly, knowingly or recklessly; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

1 It shall be an offence for a person— a without reasonable excuse, to fail to comply with the provisions of regulations 4 to 7 above; b intentionally to obstruct an authorised person, or a person acting under his instructions, in the exercise of a power conferred by regulation 8 above; c without reasonable excuse, to fail t

What would breach regulation 9(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. Refusing to let an inspector onto premises they are entitled to enter under the Bovine Hides Regulations 1997.
  2. Sending an official away, or telling staff to say nothing, where the power being exercised does not depend on anyone's consent.
  3. Physically blocking an examination, or removing something an officer has said they intend to inspect.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (1997-04-03); 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
Bovine Hides Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998
Revoked on
1 June 1998
Made
13 March 1997
In force from
3 April 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

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

These Regulations make further provision for the enforcement of the requirements of Article 1(2) of Commission Regulation (EC) No. 716/96, adopting exceptional support measures for the beef market in the United Kingdom, in so far as those requirements relate to the hides of bovine animals aged more than 30 months which do not show any clinical sign of BSE. They ensure that, when such a hide is tanned as permitted under the Commission Regulation, any part of it not tanned is treated as controlled waste and destroyed in accordance with the requirements of the Commission Regulation. They provide for the registration of hide dealers and tannery controllers, and for the approval of rendering plants, to permit the Minister to carry out the controls necessary to ensure compliance with the requirements of the Commission Regulation. A Compliance Cost Assessment for these Regulations has been prepared and placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Copies can be obtained from the Beef and Sheep Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2JA.

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 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 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