UK Offence Report

Obstruction of officers

article 10 of The Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Quota Measures) Order 1997

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

10 Any person who— a fails without reasonable excuse to comply with any requirement imposed by a British sea-fishery officer under the powers conferred on him by articles 6 and 7 of this Order; b without reasonable excuse prevents any other person from complying with any such requirement; or c assaults an officer who is exercising any of the powers conferred on him by articles 6 to 8 of this Order or obstructs any such officer in the exercise of any of those powers, shall be guilty of an offence and liable— i on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum; or ii on conviction on indictment to a fine.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Strict liability
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

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.

“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: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

10 Any person who— a fails without reasonable excuse to comply with any requirement imposed by a British sea-fishery officer under the powers conferred on him by articles 6 and 7 of this Order; b without reasonable excuse prevents any other person from complying with any such requirement; or c assaults an offic

What would breach article 10?

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 Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Quota Measures) Order 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
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

'to a fine' with no stated maximum.

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 Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Quota Measures) Order 1998
Revoked on
14 March 1998
Made
17 March 1997
In force from
9 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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order, which revokes the Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Quota Measures) Order 1996, as amended by the Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Quota Measures) (Amendment) Order 1996, makes provision for the enforcement of certain of the enforceable Community restrictions and other obligations relating to sea fishing set out in Council Regulation (EC) No. 390/97 (OJ No. L66, 6.3.97, p.1) (“the Council Regulation”). The Council Regulation fixes total allowable catches and member States’ quotas for 1997 and lays down certain conditions under which they may be fished. Article 3 of the Order creates offences in respect of breaches of the provisions of the Council Regulation referred to in column 1 (and briefly described in column 2) of the Schedule to the Order. Penalties, which may include the forfeiture of fish, nets and other fishing gear, are specified for such offences (article 4). The statutory maximum penalty specified in the Schedule is currently £5,000. The Order confers powers of enforcement on British sea-fishery officers in relation to fishing boats and on land and in relation to the seizure of fish and fishing gear (articles 6, 7 and 8). Provision is made for the punishment of anyone found guilty of assaulting or obstructing an officer (article 10).

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same 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”
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