UK Offence Report

Obstruction of officers

article 18(1) of The Sea Fishing (Restriction on Days at Sea) Order 2003

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

1 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 14 and 15 of this Order; 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 him by articles 14 to 16 of this Order or intentionally obstructs any such officer in the exercise of any of those powers, is 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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

1 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 14 and 15 of this Order; b without reasonable excuse prevents, or attempts to prevent, any other person from complyi

What would breach article 18(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. Refusing to let an inspector onto premises they are entitled to enter under the Sea Fishing (Restriction on Days at Sea) Order 2003.
  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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Sea Fishing (Restriction on Days at Sea) (No. 2) Order 2003 (revoked)
Revoked on
7 July 2003
Made
6 February 2003
In force from
8 February 2003
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 provides for the enforcement in England and Wales of the provisions of Annex XVII (“the Annex”) to Council Regulation 2341/2002 (OJ No. L356, 31.12.2002, p12) fixing for certain fish stocks and groups of fish stocks the fishing opportunities in Community waters for 2003. The Order contains provisions relating to the calculation of the number of days on which a vessel may be absent from port for the purposes of the Annex (article 3(2)–(8)) and the transfer of days from one period to another (article 5) and from one vessel to another (article 6 and Schedule 1). The Order creates offences in respect of breaches, by a person in charge of a relevant British fishing boat (as defined in the Order), of the provisions of paragraphs 6(a) (absence from port in excess of number of permitted days), 7 (use of single type of gear), 8 (use of gear in different areas) and 9 (use of gears in given periods) of the Annex (article 3(1)), as qualified by a defence for unwitting recipients of excess days (article 3(9)). An offence is not committed where a boat would not have exceeded its permitted days under the Annex if the management periods were one month, rather than two months in length (article 4). The Order also creates offences in respect of breaches of other provisions of the Annex (articles 8, 9 and 10) relating to landing cod without advance notice (paragraph 13) or at an unauthorised location (paragraph 14), mixing of cod and other species on board (paragraph 17) or transportation of cod on land without an accompanying landing declaration (paragraph 20). It also imposes additional requirements relating to logbooks (article 11). Failure to comply with those requirements is an offence, as is the making of a false statement by any person in a notification under article 6(2) (article 6(6)). The application of the Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Control Measures) 2000 (S.I. 2000/51) is extended in pursuance of paragraph 12 of the Annex (article 7). The Order provides that a person guilty of an offence under it other than an offence under article 18(1) is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding £50,000 and on conviction on indictment to a fine. Further fines up to and including the value of any fish caught in committing the offence are permitted and the court may also order the seizure of fish caught or equipment used in, or in activities leading to, the commission of the offence (article 12). The Order also provides for the recovery of fines imposed, or treated as imposed, by a magistrates' court in England or Wales (article 13). For the purposes of enforcing provisions of the Annex the Order confers on British sea-fishery officers the powers to enter premises, to go on board fishing boats, to stop and search vehicles transporting fish, to examine fish, to require the production of documents, to search for and seize documents, to take a boat to the nearest convenient port and to seize fish and fishing gear (articles 14, 15 and 16). Protection of such officers from liability is set out in article 17, and impeding them is an offence under article 18, with a fine of up to the statutory maximum on summary conviction and a fine on conviction on indictment. Articles 19 and 20 deal with corporate and equivalent offences and admissibility of documents in evidence. A Regulatory Impact Assessment in relation to the Annex and this Order has been prepared and placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Copies can be obtained from Defra, Fisheries Division I, 4th Floor, Nobel House, Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR.

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