UK Offence Report

Obstruction of officers

article 18(1) of The Sea Fishing (Recovery Measures) Order 2008 (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

1 A person is guilty of an offence if that person—

a fails without reasonable excuse to comply with any requirement imposed by

a British sea-fishery officer under the powers conferred by this Order;

b without reasonable excuse, prevents, or attempts to prevent, any other person from complying with any such requirement;

c assaults an officer who is exercising any of the powers conferred by this Order; or

d intentionally obstructs an officer in the exercise of any of the powers conferred by this Order.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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

1 A person is guilty of an offence if that person— a fails without reasonable excuse to comply with any requirement imposed by a British sea-fishery officer under the powers conferred by this Order; b without reasonable excuse, prevents, or attempts to prevent, any other person from complying with any such requirement; c assaults an officer w

What would breach article 18(1)?

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 Sea Fishing (Recovery Measures) Order 2008.
  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
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£50,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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 2008
In force from
30 September 2008
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 restrictions and obligations relating to fishing for cod, northern hake, plaice and sole contained in Council Regulation (EC) No 423/2004 (OJ No L 70, 9.3.04, p 70) (the “Cod Regulation”), Council Regulation (EC) No 811/2004 (OJ No L 150, 30.4.04, p 1, as corrected by a corrigendum published in OJ No L 185, 24.5.04, p 1) (the “Hake Regulation”), Council Regulation (EC) No 676/2007 (OJ No L 157, 19.6.07, p 1) (the “North Sea Place and Sole Regulation”) and Council Regulation (EC) No 509/2007 (OJ No L122, 11.5.07, p 7) (the “Western Channel Sole Regulation”). Articles 4 to 9 make it an offence to fail to comply with provisions in the Cod Regulation, Hake Regulation, North Sea Plaice and Sole Regulation or Western Channel Sole Regulation relating to fishing effort messages and recording time spent in the areas, margin of tolerance in estimation of quantities in the logbook, requirements for prior notification of entry into a port, landing, discharge at sea and transhipment, separate stowage of fish, sampling regimes and transport of cod, northern hake and sole. Article 10 makes it an offence to contravene or fail to comply with provisions in the Cod Regulation and Hake Regulation relating to the requirement to land fish at designated ports. The penalties for offences under articles 4 to 10 are contained in article 11. Article 12 contains provisions for the recovery of fines. Articles 13 to 18 set out the powers of British sea-fishery officers. Article 21 contains revocations. An impact assessment of the effect that this Order will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sector is available from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Sea Fisheries Conservation Division, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR.

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