UK Offence Report

Penalty for endangering

article 9(1) of The Air Navigation (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2003

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 In article 122, after paragraph (6), there shall be inserted:

7 If any person contravenes any provision specified in Part C of the said Schedule he shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum and on conviction on indictment to

a fine or imprisonment for

a term not exceeding five years or 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 9(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 Air Navigation (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2003, 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
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
5 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
13 November 2003
In force from
16 December 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 further amends the Air Navigation Order 2000 (“the ANO”). In addition to minor and drafting amendments (article 11(2), (3) and (4)) the following changes are made. With effect from 1st January 2005 the operator of an aircraft registered in the United Kingdom with a maximum total weight authorised of more than 27,000 kg flying for the purpose of public transport must have a flight data monitoring programme as part of its accident prevention and flight safety programme. EUROCONTROL’s Safety Regulatory Requirement No. 5 requires member states, including the UK, to adopt harmonised licensing and processing procedures for air traffic controllers. This requires the issue of new air traffic controller licences and the revision of the associated regulatory requirements. The person in charge of the provision of an air traffic control service in the United Kingdom must satisfy himself that any person acting as an ‘air traffic controller’ or a ‘student air traffic controller’ holds an appropriate licence and is competent to perform his duties. The privileges of an air traffic controller licence and a student air traffic controller licence are specified. Ratings that may be included in an air traffic controller licence, and associated rating endorsements, and the privileges of those ratings and rating endorsements are specified. The validity of any rating or endorsement included in an air traffic controller’s licence is maintained by including a unit licence endorsement. When a rating ceases to be valid for a particular sector or operational position, the air traffic controller must inform the person in charge of the provision of the air traffic control service. When a rating ceases to be valid for any sector or operational position, or when a person ceases to act as an air traffic controller at a particular unit, he must notify the Civil Aviation Authority and forward his licence for endorsement. An air traffic controller is required to hold a medical certificate. A person who has failed an examination, assessment or test in connection with air traffic controller licensing is not entitled to act in the capacity for which that examination, assessment or test would have qualified him. Only a simulator that has been approved by the Civil Aviation Authority may be used for any examination, assessment, and test or approved training for air traffic controller licensing. Definitions are included for ‘special tasks service’, ‘offshore service’, ‘terminal control service’, ‘air control’ and ‘ground movement control’. References to aerodromes owned or managed by the CAA are omitted. There are no longer any such aerodromes. The commander of an aircraft must report to the Civil Aviation Authority any birdstrike occurrence which occurs whilst the aircraft is in flight within the United Kingdom. Article 118 of the ANO provides that if it appears to the CAA or an authorised person that an aircraft is intended or likely to be flown where any one of a number of specified provisions would be contravened, the aircraft may be detained. By virtue of paragraph 8, there is now included in the list of specified provisions article 65(2). Article 65(2) of the ANO prohibits a member of the crew of an aircraft being on board whilst under the influence of alcohol or a drug. By virtue of section 2 of the Aviation Offences Act 2003 contravention of the endangering provisions at articles 63 and 64 of the ANO is now subject to a maximum penalty of five years. The ANO is amended accordingly. Terrain Awareness and Warning Systems (TAWS) are categorised as Class A or Class B. United Kingdom registered turbine jet and turbine propeller aeroplanes, with: a a maximum total weight authorised exceeding 5,700kg, or b certified to carry more than nine passengers which are not flying for the purposes of public transport, may be equipped with the simplified TAWS Class B equipment instead of TAWS Class A. The compliance date for aeroplanes without Ground Proximity Warning Systems (GPWS) will be 1 January 2005. Aircraft with GPWS installed before 1 April 2000 will be required to have TAWS equipment fitted by 1 January 2007. In article 4 of the ANO there are some references to a “charter” and other references to a “charter by demise”. These are intended to refer to the same thing. For consistency “charter by demise” is now used throughout.

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 0.92.

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