UK Offence Report

6 Any person who— a intentionally obstructs any person acting in the execution of these Regulations; b…

regulation 6 of The Salmonella in Broiler Flocks (Survey Powers) (England) Regulations 2005

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

6 Any person who—

a intentionally obstructs any person acting in the execution of these Regulations;

b without reasonable cause, fails to give to any person acting in the execution of these Regulations any assistance or information which that person may reasonably require of him for the performance of his functions under these Regulations;

c furnishes to any person acting in the execution of these Regulations any information which he knows to be false or misleading; or

d fails without reasonable excuse to produce

a record when required to do so to any person acting in the execution of these Regulations, 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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

mation which he knows to be false or misleading; or d fails without reasonable excuse to produce a record when required to do so to any person acting in the execution of these Regulations, is guilty of an offence.

What would breach regulation 6?

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 Broiler Flocks (Survey Powers) (England) Regulations 2005.
  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 (2005-11-17); 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 Broiler Flocks (Survey Powers) (England) Regulations 2006 (revoked)
Revoked on
12 April 2006
Made
20 October 2005
In force from
17 November 2005
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.

These Regulations provide a power of entry to inspectors to undertake the sampling required by Commission Decision 2005/636/EC (concerning a financial contribution by the Community towards a baseline survey on the prevalence of Salmonella spp. in broiler flocks of Gallus gallus to be carried out in the Member States) to detect the prevalence of Salmonella spp. in broiler chickens. Regulation 3 designates the Secretary of State as the competent authority for the purposes of the Commission Decision. Regulation 4 provides that the occupier or person in charge of a holding must provide information to the Secretary of State, upon request, to assist her with the selection of holdings to be included in the survey. Regulation 5 provides inspectors with various powers including a power of entry and power to take samples of faecal material, to examine records and to make inquiries of any person. Regulation 6 creates offences for obstructing an inspector exercising his powers under these Regulations and regulation 7 sets out the applicable penalties. Regulation 9 provides that these Regulations shall be enforced by the local authority. A regulatory impact assessment has not been prepared for these Regulations.

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