UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Pigs (Records, Identification and Movement) Order 2003

the instrument as a whole of The Pigs (Records, Identification and Movement) Order 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

Contravening this instrument is an offence under section

73 of the Animal Health Act 1981. 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 Pigs (Records, Identification and Movement) Order 2003.

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 section 73 of the Animal Health Act 1981.

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
Status not determined
Made
9 October 2003
In force from
31 October 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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order, which applies in England only, continues to implement Council Directive 92/102/EEC on the identification and registration of animals (OJ No L 355, 5.12.92, p.0032) and revokes and replaces the Pigs (Records, Identification and Movement) (Interim Measures) (England) (No. 2) Order 2002. (S.I. 2002/2154, as amended). It makes the following changes of substance— It removes the cessation provision so that the Order now has permanent effect (article 1). It amends the provisions relating to the identification of pigs so that— before being moved off a holding, a pig over 12 months old must be marked with an identification mark or a slapmark (article 14) and a pig 12 months old or less must be marked in that way or with a temporary mark (article 15); and a pig imported from outside the European Union must be identified at the destination of holding with an eartag or tattoo containing the letters “UK” followed by the herdmark and the letter “F” (article 16). In addition to the above requirements, the Order provides that— a pig 12 months old or less being moved to a slaughterhouse or slaughter market must be marked with an identification mark or a slapmark (article 18); a pig being moved to a show, exhibition or for export and also for breeding, where it is intended that the pig shall be returned to the holding from which it was moved, must be marked with an identification mark that includes a unique individual identification number (articles 19 and 20). It adds article 6 requiring slaughterhouse occupiers to record details of pigs that have not been identified under this Order. It extends the period that records must be retained from 3 to 6 years (article 9). Part 2 sets out record keeping requirements, including the requirement to keep movement records (article 5), sale records at an auction (article 7) and records of the number of pigs on a holding (article 8). Part 3 defines identification marks (article 10) and slapmarks (article 12) and specifies the requirements for eartags (article 11). Part 6 regulates the movement of pigs (article 21) and pet pigs (article 22) and authorises the Secretary of State to approve holdings from which pigs may be moved without triggering the standstill period in the Disease Control (England) Order 2003 (S.I. 2003/1729) in the holding of destination (article 23). Part 7 prohibits the removal and replacement of identification marks, except in certain circumstances (articles 24 and 25). The Order is enforced by the local authority (article 27). Breach of the Order is an offence under section 73 of the Animal Health Act 1981, punishable in accordance with section 75 of that Act. A Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared for this Order and placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Copies can be obtained from the Livestock Identification Division, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 1A Page Street, London SW1P 4PQ.

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 0.55.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.55 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