UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Sheep and Goats (Records, Identification and Movement) (England) Order 2007

the instrument as a whole of The Sheep and Goats (Records, Identification and Movement) (England) Order 2007

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

Contravening this instrument is an offence under section

73 of the Animal Health Act 1981. The instrument itself contains no offence-creating words.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
importing or exporting without authority
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
Not determined

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.

Classifier’s reasoning: contravention offences of this kind are strict as to the breach; the fault position is governed by the parent Act and was not read from it.

What would breach the instrument as a whole?

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. Moving the goods across the border under the Sheep and Goats (Records, Identification and Movement) (England) Order 2007 without the licence the instrument requires.
  2. Holding a licence for one consignment and using it for another.
  3. Sending goods in transit through the United Kingdom, where the provision catches transit as well as import and export.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Set by another provision — the instrument states the penalty by reference to an Act or to another regulation
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

The instrument does not state a penalty itself. It sets one by reference to section 73 of the Animal Health Act 1981.

the penalty is in the parent Act, not in this instrument.

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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Sheep and Goats (Records, Identification and Movement) (England) Order 2009
Revoked on
31 December 2009
Made
11 December 2007
In force from
11 January 2008
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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order makes provision for the administration and enforcement in England of Council Regulation (EC) No. 21/2004 (establishing a system for the identification and registration of ovine and caprine animals and amending Regulation (EC) No. 1782/2003 and Directives 92/102/EEC and 64/432/EEC). It revokes and replaces the Sheep and Goats (Records, Identification and Movement) (England) Order 2005, S.I. 2005/3100 (as amended by S.I. 2006/2987), changing the domestic identification requirements to reflect the fact that the UK is no longer able to take advantage of a derogation from the main double tagging regime under Council Regulation 21/2004. Part 2 of the Order deals with the identification of animals. It requires the application of two means of identification to an animal identified or imported on or after 11th January 2008 and intended for export (articles 5 and 9). It provides for animals that are not intended for export and intended for slaughter within 12 months of birth to be identified with a single identification tag (article 6). Older animals which have been individually identified with a single tag before 11th January 2008 can continue to be identified with a single tag, whereas those that have not must be re-tagged with two identification tags (articles 7 and 8). Part 3 of the Order deals with identification tags (the term “identification tag” is defined in article 2(1)) and provides that the Secretary of State must approve identification tags (article 11). Part 4 of the Order deals with the removal or replacement of identification marks. It prohibits the removal of identification tags unless necessary for welfare reasons (article 14) and the alteration of identification marks (article 22). It provides for the replacement of an identification mark that is lost, removed or illegible with an identical means of identification (article 15) or replacement with a means of identification with a different code (articles 16 to 19). Part 5 makes provision for every keeper to keep an up-to-date holding register, setting out the information which must be entered in the register and when (article 23 and Schedule 1). Part 6 makes provision for a movement document to accompany every animal when it moves between holdings (article 24 and Schedule 2) and specifies when and to whom the document must be supplied (article 25). Part 7 sets out the requirement for keepers to keep an annual inventory (article 26) and supply information to the Secretary of State about his holding (article 27) and the time limits for doing so. Part 8 provides for the allocation of lot numbers to animals at a market and prohibits the buying or selling of animals unless all animals from a lot are bought or sold (article 28). Part 9 makes provision for the identification requirements of animals brought into England from other member States or other countries in the United Kingdom (articles 29 and 30). Part 10 contains miscellaneous and enforcement provisions. Article 31 sets out a defence to the failure to identify an animal correctly in the case of emergency veterinary treatment. Article 32 confers various powers to inspectors and article 33 enables inspectors to prohibit the movement of a flock of sheep or a herd of goats to or from a holding. Articles 34 and 35 relate to the provisions of false or misleading information and to offences committed by bodies corporate. The Order is enforced by the local authority or the Secretary of State if so directed (article 36). Breach of the Order is an offence under section 73 of the Animal Health Act 1981, punishable in accordance with section 75 of that Act. An Impact Assessment has been prepared and placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Copies can be obtained from Terry Gurnhill, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 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 0.55.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.55 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