UK Offence Report

Compliance with notices, declarations or licences

regulation 18 of The Avian Influenza (Vaccination) (England) Regulations 2006

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

18 Any licensee, person on whom

a notice is served, or person to whom

a declaration applies under these Regulations who contravenes or fails to comply with the requirements or restrictions in that licence, notice or declaration 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to comply with a notice or direction
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 regulation 18?

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. On these words an offence is committed where a person contravenes or fails to comply with the requirements or restrictions in that licence, notice or declaration.
  2. Being served with a notice under the Avian Influenza (Vaccination) (England) Regulations 2006 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  3. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  4. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

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
11 October 2006
In force from
14 November 2006
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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations transpose, in relation to England, Council Directive 2005/94/EC on Community measures for the control of avian influenza repealing Directive 92/40/EEC (OJ No. L10, 14.1.2006, p. 16) insofar as it deals with vaccination against avian influenza. Regulation 5 imposes a general prohibition on vaccination of birds against avian influenza except where required or licensed by the Secretary of State. Regulations 6 and 7 permit the Secretary of State, if he considers it necessary to reduce the risk of the spread of avian influenza, to declare vaccination zones in areas that contain poultry or other captive birds that he considers should be vaccinated, or to serve vaccination notices on premises where such birds are kept. Regulation 8 gives the Secretary of State the power to require vaccination in these zones or on such premises. Such measures can only be carried out in accordance with a vaccination plan approved by the European Commission and where a risk assessment has been carried out that has indicated that there is a significant and immediate threat of avian influenza spreading within or into England, or that certain areas or birds are in any event exposed to a risk of avian influenza. These measures will be emergency or preventive, depending on the nature of the risk. Regulation 7 also permits the Secretary of State to grant licences to occupiers of premises that permit vaccination of birds, or certain categories of birds, on those premises. Such a measure can only be carried out on a preventive basis and where a risk assessment indicates that birds on the premises are exposed to a risk of avian influenza. Regulation 9 provides for measures applying in a vaccination zone or premises that are the subject of a vaccination notice or a vaccination licence. Regulation 10 provides that where emergency vaccination is undertaken before the European Commission has approved the national emergency vaccination plan, there is a general prohibition on the movement of poultry, other captive birds and their eggs from one premises within an emergency vaccination zone to another within an emergency vaccination zone, into or out of any emergency vaccination zone and into or out of any premises that is the subject of a vaccination notice unless the movement is one of the permitted movements listed in the Schedule and the movement is licensed. Regulations 14 to 24 relate to powers of inspectors, offences and enforcement. Regulation 21 applies offence-related provisions of the Animal Health Act 1981 (c.22) as if the Regulations were made under the Act. Consequently, failure to comply with the Regulations is an offence under section 73 of the Act. Regulation 21(3) provides that a person guilty of an offence under these Regulations is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months or to a fine not exceeding £5000 or both. A full regulatory impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business has been prepared and placed in the library of each House of Parliament, together with a Transposition Note setting out how the vaccination elements of Directive 2005/94/EC are transposed in these Regulations. Copies may be obtained from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Exotic Disease Prevention and Control Division, 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 0.92.

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