UK Offence Report

1 Subject to paragraph (2), it shall be an offence under the Act for any person without legal authority or…

article 10(1) of The Disease Control (Interim Measures) (England) (No. 2) Order 2002

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

1 Subject to paragraph (2), it shall be an offence under the Act for any person without legal authority or excuse, proof of which shall lie on him, to—

a contravene any provision of this Order or any provision of

a licence, authority, permit or notice issued or served under it; or

b cause or permit any such contravention or non compliance.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 article 10(1)?

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 Disease Control (Interim Measures) (England) (No. 2) Order 2002, 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
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

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
Status not determined
Made
16 August 2002
In force from
6 September 2002
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, which applies to England only revokes and replaces (with amendments) the Disease Control (Interim Measures)(England) Order 2002 (S.I. 2002/242, as amended by S.I. 2002/907, S.I. 2002/1348 and S.I. 2002/1764) (the “DC Order”). The Order comes into force on 6th September 2002 and will cease to have effect on 1st February 2003. (The DC Order if it had been revoked would have ceased to have effect on 1st December 2002). The Order like the DC Order provides for temporary disease control measures. It provides for movement restrictions on animals (articles 3 and 4) and in particular— a provides that it shall be unlawful to move any animal unless under the authority of a licence issued by the Secretary of State or an inspector appointed for the purposes of the Animal Health Act 1981 (1981 c. 22) (article 3(1)(a)); and b imposes a 20 day standstill period (the “standstill requirement”) following the movement of animals on to premises during which no animal may be moved off those premises, subject to exemptions in respect of various specified movements (article 3(2) and(3)). The principal amendment brought in by the Order is in the introduction of additional exemptions (at article 3(3)(g) and (h)) in relation to the standstill requirement whereby— a movements of cattle and sheep intended for breeding before the later of 1st February 2003 or three months after their arrival on any premises; and b the return from market to any premises of unsold breeding rams, will not give rise to a standstill requirement on the premises onto which they are moved provided certain conditions are met. The main condition is that the breeding cattle or sheep or unsold breeding rams are placed in an isolation facility (a “breeding isolation facility”) immediately on their arrival and that they are kept there, together with any other animals already in that isolation facility and any animals brought into it from elsewhere on the premises, until the start of the 21st day after the day of their arrival. Detailed requirements to be met and observed in relation to the breeding isolation facility in order for the new standstill exemption to be available are set out in article 3(9) and Part I of the Schedule. In addition, before the breeding isolation facility can be used for the purposes of the new exemption, it must have been inspected by a qualified veterinary surgeon who is required to complete a report on his inspection substantially in the form set out in Part II of the Schedule and send it to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs at the address shown on the form (article 3(9)(b) and (c)). The animals in the breeding isolation facility are also required to be inspected by a qualified veterinary surgeon during the period starting with the 14th day and ending with the 20th day after the day of the animals arriving on the premises and the facility is also required to be inspected by the veterinary surgeon during the same period. The Order also continues to: i prohibit the movement of animals to a slaughterhouse except where this is for the purpose of their being slaughtered within 48 hours of their arrival there (article 4); ii provide a permit system for hunting with dogs (article 5); iii set out general provisions in relation to licences, authorities, permits and notices issued under the Order (articles 6 and 8); iv set out arrangements in relation to changes of occupation of premises (article 7); v set out powers of the Secretary of State and local authority inspectors (article 9); vi declare certain contraventions to be offences under the Animal Health Act (article 10); and vii provide for enforcement of the Order (article 12). The Order also (at article 13) amends the Animal Gatherings (Interim Measures) (England) Order 2002 (S.I. 2002/1765, as amended by S.I. 2002/1328 and S.I. 2002/1765) by changing the date on which that order will cease to have effect from 1st December 2002 to 1st February 2003. A regulatory impact assessment has not been prepared for this Order.

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 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 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