UK Offence Report

Category 3 material

regulation 6 of The Animal By-Products Regulations 2003 (revoked)

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

6 Any person who has in his possession or under his control any Category

3 material and who fails to comply with Article 6(2) or Article 6(3) of the Community Regulation shall be guilty of an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to do something the instrument requires
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 6?

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. On these words an offence is committed where a person has in his possession or under his control any Category 3 material and who fails to comply with Article 6(2) or Article 6(3) of the Community Regulation.
  2. Not doing what the provision requires under the Animal By-Products Regulations 2003, by the time it requires it to be done.
  3. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
6 months
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

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
4 June 2003
In force from
1 July 2003
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 make provision in England for the administration and enforcement of Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 October 2002 laying down health rules concerning animal by-products not intended for human consumption (OJ No. L273, 10.10.2002, p1.) (“the Community Regulation”). They revoke the Animal By-Products Order 1999, S.I. 1999/646, and the Animal By-Products (Amendment) Order 2001, S.I. 2001/1704. They also make provision for the enforcement of the following measures, which amend the Community Regulation and make provision for transitional arrangements— a Commission Regulation (EC) No. 808/2003 amending Regulation (EC) No. 1774/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down health rules concerning animal by-products not intended for human consumption; b Commission Regulation (EC) No. 811/2003 implementing Regulation (EC) No. 1774/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the intra-species recycling ban for fish, the burial and burning of animal by-products and certain transitional measures; c Commission Regulation (EC) No. 813/2003 on transitional measures under Regulation (EC) No. 1774/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the collection, transport and disposal of former foodstuffs; d Commission Decision 2003/320/EC on transitional measures under Regulation (EC) No. 1774/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the use in feed of used cooking oil; e Commission Decision 2003/321/EC on transitional measures under Regulation (EC) No. 1774/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the processing standards for mammalian blood; f Commission Decision 2003/326/EC on transitional measures under Regulation (EC) No. 1774/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the separation of Category 2 and Category 3 oleochemical plants; g Commission Decision 2003/327/EC on transitional measures under Regulation (EC) No. 1774/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the low capacity incineration or co-incineration plants which do not incinerate or co-incinerate specified risk material or carcases containing them; Provision in England for the administration and enforcement of measures in the Community Regulation in relation to export and trade between member States is intended to be made by a separate instrument. The Regulations provide as follows. It is an offence to collect, transport, dispose, store, process or use, category 1, category 2 or category 3 material other than in accordance with the Community Regulation (regulations 4, 5 and 6). It is a specific offence to collect, transport, identify or store animal by-products other than in accordance with the Community Regulation (regulation 8). Feeding unprocessed animal by-products to farmed animals is prohibited and access by such animals to animal by-products is controlled (regulation 9). Regulation 10 enforces the restrictions on use of animal by-products in Article 22 of the Community Regulation. This includes intra-species re-cycling, feeding catering waste to farm animals and the application of organic fertilisers on to pasture land. Regulation 11 defines pasture land. Regulation 12 permits the intra-species re-cycling of fish after 1 January 2004. Until then it is permitted by a transitional measure in Part VI of Schedule 4. Regulations 13 to 16 provide for the approval of premises for the different types of treatment of animal by-products. Regulation 16 provides that composting on premises where the composted material originated do not need approval if the conditions of that regulation are complied with. Regulations 17 to 21 provide for checks at plants, sampling and approved laboratories. Regulations 22 to 24 regulate the placing on the market of various processed animal by-products. Regulations 25 to 27 provide derogations relating to the use of animal by-products for taxidermy and feeding certain specified animals. Regulation 28 permits the burial of pet animals. Regulation 29 permits burial and burning in remote areas, which are defined as Lundy and the Isles of Scilly. Regulations 30 and 31 provide for burial or burning in the event of a disease outbreak and for burning and burial of bees and apiculture products. Regulations 32 to 39 provide for record keeping. Regulations 40 to 42 provide for applications for approvals, the suspension or revocation of approvals and an appeal against a notice to amend, suspend or revoke an approval. Under Regulations 43 to 45 an inspector can serve a notice requiring the disposal of animal by-product or catering waste and requiring cleansing and disinfection of any vehicle, container or premises. Any notice served under these Regulations shall be complied with at the expense of the person on whom the notice is served. Regulations 46 and 47 provide powers of entry and an offence of obstructing an inspector. Schedule 1 makes provision for biogas and composting plants, and Schedule 2 provides for testing methods. Schedule 3 contains transitional provisions relating to intra-species re-cycling of fish, disposal of former foodstuffs, used cooking oils in animal feed, disposal of mammalian blood, oleochemical plants and low capacity incinerators. Breach of the Regulations is an offence punishable on summary conviction to a fine up to the statutory maximum or six months imprisonment. On indictment the penalty is an unlimited fine or two years imprisonment (regulation 48). The Regulations are enforced by the local authority except in specified premises (regulation 49). A Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared and placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Copies can be obtained from BSE Division of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 1A Page Street, London, SW1P 4PQ.

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