UK Offence Report

2 Without prejudice to paragraph (1), any person who contravenes or fails to comply with Article 3.2 of the…

article 4(2) of The Sea Fishing (Prohibition on the Removal of Shark Fins) Order 2007 (revoked)

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 Without prejudice to paragraph (1), any person who contravenes or fails to comply with Article 3.2 of the Regulation 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 4(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. On these words an offence is committed where a person contravenes or fails to comply with Article 3.2 of the Regulation.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Sea Fishing (Prohibition on the Removal of Shark Fins) Order 2007, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

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
1 September 2007
In force from
1 October 2007
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 makes provision for the enforcement of Community restrictions and other obligations relating to the removal of shark fins on board vessels as set out in Council Regulation (EC) No. 1185/2003 on the removal of fins of sharks on board vessels (OJ No L167, 04.07.2003, p.1). This Order applies to English and Welsh fishing boats wherever they are, except when they are within the territorial sea adjacent to Wales, and to all other boats in British fishery limits, excluding the Scottish zone, the Northern Ireland zone, the territorial sea adjacent to Wales and the territorial seas of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Article 4 of the Order creates offences in respect of breaches of those Articles of the Regulation referred to in column 1 of the Schedule to the Order. Penalties are specified for such offences in article 5. Provision is made for the recovery of fines in article 6. The Order confers powers of enforcement on British sea-fishery officers (articles 7, 8 and 10). Article 9 allows a justice of the peace to issue warrants for entry to premises. Article 11 makes provision for the protection of British sea-fishery officers and their assistants and article 12 provides for offences and penalties should they be obstructed in the course of their investigations under this Order. Article 13 makes provision in respect of offences by bodies corporate, partnerships and unincorporated associations. Article 14 allows for the admissibility in evidence of records compiled for the purposes of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2847/93 establishing a control system applicable to the common fisheries policy (OJ No L261, 20.10.93, p.1). An Impact Assessment in relation to this Order has been prepared and placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Copies can be obtained from Defra, Sea Fisheries Conservation Division, Area 7B, 3-8 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HH.

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