UK Offence Report

7 Any person who– a intentionally obstructs any person acting under these Regulations; b without reasonable…

regulation 7 of The Salmonella in Laying Flocks (Survey Powers) (England) Regulations 2004

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

7 Any person who–

a intentionally obstructs any person acting under these Regulations;

b without reasonable cause, fails to comply with requests under regulation 3(2)(c) and regulation 5(1)(e) above; or

c provides to an inspector, an authorised officer or

a person assisting an inspector or authorised officer, any information or documentation which he knows to be false or misleading, 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
obstructing an official exercising a power
Fault element
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove both that the conduct happened and that it was done with the state of mind the provision names (intentionally).

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: intentionally.

What would breach regulation 7?

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 Salmonella in Laying Flocks (Survey Powers) (England) Regulations 2004.
  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
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (2004-12-01); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean an unlimited fine.

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 Salmonella in Laying Flocks (Survey Powers) (England) Regulations 2005 (revoked)
Revoked on
19 March 2005
Made
3 November 2004
In force from
1 December 2004
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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

(This note does not form part of the Regulations) These Regulations, which apply in relation to England only, implement Commission Decision 2004/665/EC which requires Member States to carry out a survey for salmonella prevalence in laying flocks (OJ No L303, 30.09.2004, p30) in accordance with certain technical specifications referred to in Article 5 of the Commission Decision. The text of the technical specifications can be found at http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/food/biosafety/salmonella/tech_spec_sanco-34-2004_rev-3_en.pdf These Regulations– a designate the Secretary of State for the purpose of selecting premises for sampling and give inspectors the powers required for selecting premises for sampling (regulation 3) b provide powers for inspectors to enter premises for the purposes of the Commission Decision and for the purpose of enforcement of these Regulations (regulation 4) c provide powers for local authority officers to enter premises for the purpose of enforcement of these Regulations where agreement is reached with the Secretary of State for the local authority to enforce (regulation 4) d provide powers for inspectors to make inquiries, examine and retain records, take samples, require assistance, be accompanied by other persons and take equipment and vehicles on to the premises, for the purpose of carrying out sampling under these Regulations and for the purpose of enforcement of these Regulations (regulation 5) e provide powers for local authority officers for the purpose of enforcement of these Regulations where agreement is reached with the Secretary of State for the local authority to enforce (regulation 5) f set out requirements for notices in writing (regulation 6) g prescribe offences and penalties (regulation 7 and 8); and h provide for enforcement by the Secretary of State of these Regulations as well as for enforcement by the local authority where this is agreed with the Secretary of State (regulation 9). A regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as it has no impact on the costs of business.

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