UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 10(2) of The Plant Breeders' Rights (Farm Saved Seed) (Specified Information) Regulations 1998

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

2 A person shall be guilty of an offence who, without reasonable excuse, contravenes or fails to comply with regulation

7 or regulation 10(1).

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
contravening a requirement of the instrument
Fault element
Mixed — some elements strict, some not
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

The prosecution must prove the conduct, and - for those elements the provision qualifies (intentionally, knowingly, recklessly) - the state of mind it names. The remaining elements carry no fault requirement, so they are strict.

“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: the offence itself carries no fault word, but a duty it criminalises by cross-reference uses knowingly, intentionally, recklessly; which element that governs was not determined; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

2 A person shall be guilty of an offence who, without reasonable excuse, contravenes or fails to comply with regulation 7 or regulation 10(1).

What would breach regulation 10(2)?

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 the thing the provision prohibits under the Plant Breeders' Rights (Farm Saved Seed) (Specified Information) Regulations 1998, whatever the reason for doing it.
  2. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£500
Standard scale
Level 2
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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
Status not determined
Made
8 April 1998
In force from
8 May 1998
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

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

These Regulations specify the information which is necessary to be provided for the purposes of section 9 of the Plant Varieties Act 1997. Section 9 deals with farm saved seed. The Regulations specify— a the information which is to be supplied by a farmer to a rights holder (regulation 3); b the information which is to be supplied by a seed processor to a rights holder (regulation 4); and c the information which is to be supplied by a rights holder to a farmer and a seed processor (regulation 5). A prohibition is imposed on the removal of seed from a holding for processing save in certain circumstances (regulation 7). An obligation of confidentiality is imposed in respect of information received pursuant to these regulations (regulation 8). The penalty for breach of the Regulations is a fine not exceeding level 2 on the standard scale (regulation 10). A regulatory appraisal has been prepared and a copy has been placed in the library of both Houses of Parliament. Copies can be obtained from the Plant Variety Rights Office and Seeds Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, White House Lane, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0LF.

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”
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