UK Offence Report

Penalties

regulation 22 of The Import and Export Restrictions (Foot-and-Mouth Disease) (No.4) Regulations 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

22 A person contravening any provision of these Regulations is guilty of an offence and liable—

a on summary conviction, to

a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to imprisonment not exceeding three months or to both; or

b on conviction on indictment, to

a fine or to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding two years or to both.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
breaching the provision
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 22?

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. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Import and Export Restrictions (Foot-and-Mouth Disease) (No.4) Regulations 2007.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

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
12 October 2007
In force from
12 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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations revoke and re-make with amendments the Import and Export Restrictions (Foot-and-Mouth Disease) (No.3) Regulations 2007. The principal amendments allow the export of certain meat from specified areas (regulation 6(5) and (6) and the Schedule). The Regulations implement Commission Decision of 12 October 2007 amending Decision 2007/554/EC concerning certain protection measures against foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom (not yet published in the Official Journal). They regulate— a the importation and dispatch of live animals (regulations 4 and 5); b the export of meat from bovine, ovine caprine and porcine animals and other biungulates, and the sale of meat not eligible for export (regulation 6); c the export of meat products, milk and dairy products (regulations 7, 8 and 9); d the export of semen, ova or embryos of animals of the bovine, ovine, caprine or porcine species or other biungulates (regulation 10), hides and skins (regulation 11) and various animal products (regulation 12); and e personal exports (regulation 15). They create an offence of offering to export anything which it is prohibited to export under the Regulations (regulation 16). They provide powers for enforcement, and powers for officers of Revenue and Customs (regulations 17 to 19) and create an offence of obstruction (regulation 20). Breach of the Regulations is an offence, punishable with up to two years’ imprisonment. The Regulations are enforced by the Secretary of State or the local authority (regulation 25). An impact assessment has not been prepared for these Regulations.

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