UK Offence Report

Obstruction of officers

article 10 of The Third Country Fishing (Enforcement) Order 1999

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

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 British sea-fishery officers by articles 6 and 7 of this Order; or b without reasonable excuse prevents, or attempts to prevent, any other person from complying with any such requirement; or c assaults an officer who is exercising any of the powers conferred on British sea-fishery officers by articles 6 to 8 of this Order or intentionally 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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).

“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: intentionally; 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 British sea-fishery officers by articles 6 and 7 of this Order; or b without reasonable excuse prevents, or attempts to prevent, any other person from comply

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 Third Country Fishing (Enforcement) Order 1999.
  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
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland.

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
23 February 1999
In force from
18 March 1999
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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order provides for the enforcement of certain enforceable Community restrictions and other obligations relating to sea fishing set out in Council Regulation (EC) No. 50/1999 (OJ No. L13, 18.1.99, p. 59) and Council Regulation (EC) No. 52/1999 (OJ No. L13, 18.1.99, p. 71) (“the Community Regulations”). The Community Regulations respectively authorise fishing by vessels of Norway and the Faroe Islands for specified descriptions of fish in certain specified areas within member States' fishery limits in 1999 and contain requirements concerning fishing quotas and authorised zones, methods of fishing, the holding of licences and observance of licence conditions, the keeping of log books, the making of radio reports and similar matters. The Order makes breaches of specified articles of the Community Regulations (set out in column 1 of the Schedule to the Order) offences for the purposes of United Kingdom law where they occur within British fishery limits (article 3 and the Schedule to the Order). The offences created by the Order are triable summarily or on indictment. On conviction on indictment, the master, owner and charterer (if any) of an offending vessel will be liable to an unlimited fine. On summary conviction, the master, owner and charterer (if any) will be liable to a fine not exceeding the amount specified in relation to the offence in column 4 of the Schedule (see article 4(1)). The level of the maximum summary fine in respect of offences relating to fishing without or in excess of quota, or in unauthorised waters, methods of fishing, the keeping of logbooks and the observance of licence conditions is £50,000. The level of the maximum summary fine for all the other offences specified in the Schedule is the statutory maximum penalty (which is currently £5,000). In certain cases the master, owner and charterer (if any) of an offending vessel will also be liable to the forfeiture of any fish in respect of which the offence was committed (or, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the value of the fish) and to the forfeiture of nets or other fishing gear (article 4(2) to (4)). Additionally the Order– a contains provision concerning the recovery of fines (article 5), b confers powers of enforcement on British sea-fishery officers (articles 6 to 8), including provision for their protection (article 9), c provides for the punishment of anyone found guilty of obstructing or assaulting an officer (article 10), and d makes provision for the trial of offences (article 11) and the admissibility of logbooks and other documents (article 12). The Order revokes the Third Country Fishing (Enforcement) Order 1998 (S.I. 1998/269).

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