UK Offence Report

Provision against danger to navigation

article 8(2) of The Teignmouth Quays Harbour Revision Order 2004

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

2 If without reasonable excuse the Company fails to notify the Commissioners and Trinity House as required by paragraph (1) above or to comply in any respect with a direction given under the said paragraph, it 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.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 company
Conduct
failing to notify or register
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

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 company 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.

“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: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised); other provisions of the same instrument use a mens rea word while this one does not (the Cundy v Le Cocq contrast).

The defence, as drafted

2 If without reasonable excuse the Company fails to notify the Commissioners and Trinity House as required by paragraph (1) above or to comply in any respect with a direction given under the said paragraph, it shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exc

What would breach article 8(2)?

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. Not telling the authority about an event the instrument makes notifiable under the Teignmouth Quays Harbour Revision Order 2004, or telling them after the period allowed has run out.
  2. Assuming a notification made for another purpose, or by somebody else, satisfies this requirement.

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
Status not determined
Made
17 September 2004
In force from
24 September 2004
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 authorises Teignmouth Quay Company Limited to construct a new quay at Teignmouth and to infill Dock No. 1 and confers ancillary powers in connection with the works. The Company is authorised to dredge an area in front of the new quay and the existing Eastern quay. The Order also makes provision as to the use of land and water within the Company’s jurisdiction and modifies the power of the harbour master to give directions contained in sections 52 and 53 of the Harbours, Docks and Piers Clauses Act 1847. The deposited maps defined in article 2 of the Order may be inspected during normal hours at the offices of Teignmouth Quay Company Limited at Old Quay, Teignmouth, Devon TQ14 8ES.

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