UK Offence Report

Penalties

regulation 7 of The Foot-and-Mouth Disease (Export of Vehicles) (Disinfection of Tyres) (No. 2) Regulations 2001

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

7 A person contravening any provision of these Regulations shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

5 on the standard scale or to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding three months or to both.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

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.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach regulation 7?

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 Foot-and-Mouth Disease (Export of Vehicles) (Disinfection of Tyres) (No. 2) Regulations 2001.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
3 months

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (2001-10-22); 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
Status not determined
Made
22 October 2001
In force from
22 October 2001
Extent
E+W+S+NI

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 implement in the United Kingdom Article 10(2) of Commission Decision 2001/740/EC concerning certain protection measures with regard to foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom and repealing Decision 2001/356/EC (OJ No. L277, 20.10.2001, p. 30). They revoke and replace the Foot-and-Mouth Disease (Export of Vehicles) (Disinfection of Tyres) Regulations 2001 (S.I. 2001/887, as amended) (regulation 9) and extend the time that restrictions are imposed until midnight on 31st December 2001 (regulation 1). The Regulations impose, for the purpose of preventing the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, an obligation on the managing body of a port or, where there is an operator of a seaport terminal that operator, to ensure that no road vehicle is transported to a destination outside the British Islands through that port or terminal unless the tyres of that vehicle have been treated with an approved disinfectant (regulation 3). A power is conferred on inspectors to enter land or premises and to carry out examinations for the purpose of ascertaining whether there has been any contravention of the Regulations (regulation 4). Obstruction is an offence (regulation 5) and company directors and others can be punished for an offence by a body corporate (regulation 6). Breach of the Regulations is punishable on summary conviction by a fine of up to £5,000 or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to both (regulation 7). The Regulations are enforced in England, Wales and Scotland by the Minister or the local authority and in Northern Ireland by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (regulation 8).

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”; the provision states liability on summary conviction; the provision states a penalty in older drafting
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