UK Offence Report

Sampling and weighing regime

article 8(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 in charge of any fishing boat is guilty of an offence if that person fails to comply with

a requirement imposed by

a British sea-fishery officer to weigh fish—

a in the presence of

a controller, in accordance with—

i Article 15(1) of the Cod Regulation (weighing of cod before being transported from port of first landing and weighing of representative samples before cod landed in designated ports offered for first sale and sold);

ii Article 12(1) of the Hake Regulation (weighing of northern hake before being transported from port of first landing and weighing of representative samples before northern hake landed in designated ports offered for first sale and sold); or

iii Article 9(1) of the Western Channel Sole Regulation (weighing of common sole exceeding 300 kilograms before being transported from port of first landing); or

b in accordance with Article 15(1) of the North Sea Plaice and Sole Regulation (weighing of plaice exceeding 500 kilograms or sole exceeding 300 kilograms before being transported from port of first landing and weighing before transportation from port of first landing using scales certified as accurate).

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 article 8(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. Being served with a notice under the Sea Fishing (Recovery Measures) Order 2008 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  2. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  3. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

Penalty

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

'to a fine' with no stated maximum.

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