UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Undersized Edible Crabs Order 2000

the instrument as a whole of The Undersized Edible Crabs Order 2000

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

Contravening this instrument is an offence under sections 1(7)-(8) and

11 of the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967. The instrument itself contains no offence-creating words.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Not determined

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.

Classifier’s reasoning: contravention offences of this kind are strict as to the breach; the fault position is governed by the parent Act and was not read from it.

What would breach the instrument as a whole?

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 Undersized Edible Crabs Order 2000.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Set by another provision — the instrument states the penalty by reference to an Act or to another regulation
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

The instrument does not state a penalty itself. It sets one by reference to sections 1(7)-(8) and 11 of the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967.

the penalty is in the parent Act, not in this instrument.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

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 Edible Crabs (Undersized) Order (Northern Ireland) 2020
Revoked on
22 August 2020
Made
24 July 2000
In force from
28 August 2000
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 prescribes minimum sizes for the landing of edible crabs (Cancer pagurus) in certain areas in England (article 3(1)). There is an exemption from the minimum landing size for the landing of edible crabs from foreign fishing boats (article 3(2)), but the Order does not affect minimum sizes for the landing of edible crabs in areas of England and in Northern Ireland generally prescribed by article 19.1 of Council Regulation (EC) No 850/98 (OJ No L125, 27.4.1998, p. 1) for the conservation of fishery resources through technical measures for the protection of juveniles of marine organisms (“the Council Regulation”). The Order also prohibits the landing in England or Northern Ireland by relevant British fishing boats or Scottish fishing boats of edible crabs which have not attained a size of 130 mm and have been caught in any waters within British fishery limits which are outside the Eastern Sea Fisheries District (article 4). The Order also gives British sea-fishery officers further enforcement powers in relation to British fishing boats (article 5). Offences and penalties are prescribed respectively by sections 1(7) and 6(5), and section 11, of the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967, as amended by the Fisheries Act 1981 and the Criminal Justice Act 1991 (c. 53). This Order revokes the Undersized Crabs Order 1986 and the Undersized Crabs (Variation) Order 1989, except in so far as they form part of the law of Scotland or apply in relation to Wales. This Order is made in reliance on Article 46.1 of the Council Regulation, which authorises Member States to take certain national measures for the conservation and management of stocks. A Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared and placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Copies can be obtained from the Sea Fisheries Conservation Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Room 421d, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

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 0.59.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.59 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