UK Offence Report

Penalty for breach of Regulation (EC) No 1523/2007

regulation 2 of The Cat and Dog Fur (Control of Import, Export and Placing on the Market) Regulations 2008

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 Any person who contravenes Article

3 of Regulation (EC) No 1523/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of

11 December 2007 banning the placing on the market and the import to, or export from, the Community of cat and dog fur, and products containing such fur shall be guilty of an offence and liable—

a on conviction on indictment, to

a fine not exceeding £75,000; and

b on summary conviction, to

a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 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. Moving the goods across the border under the Cat and Dog Fur (Control of Import, Export and Placing on the Market) Regulations 2008 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
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£1,000
Standard scale
Level 3
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
26 October 2008
In force from
31 December 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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations implement in the United Kingdom Regulation (EC) No 1523/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2007 (the “EC Regulation”) which prohibits the import, export and placing on the market of cat and dog fur. Article 3 of the EC Regulation prohibits the import, export and placing on the market of cat and dog fur. Article 8 of the EC Regulation states that Member States shall lay down the rules on penalties applicable to infringements of Article 3 of the EC Regulation and that the penalties provided for shall be “effective, proportionate and dissuasive”. The other provisions of the EC Regulation are directly applicable in the United Kingdom and do not need to be transposed. Regulation 2 implements Article 8 of the EC Regulation by making contravention of Article 3 of the EC Regulation a criminal offence, punishable on indictment with a maximum penalty of £75,000 and on summary conviction with a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum (currently £5,000). Regulation 3(1) imposes a duty on local weights and measures authorities (in Great Britain) and district councils (in Northern Ireland) to enforce regulation 2 but regulation 3(2) excludes from this duty the enforcement of the Regulations within areas where the goods are under the supervision of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, in which areas enforcement will be the responsibility of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. Regulation 3(3) gives powers to local weights and measures authorities (in Great Britain) and district councils (in Northern Ireland) to inspect and seize goods suspected to be cat and dog fur for the purposes of enforcing regulation 2. No such powers are conferred on Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs since all necessary powers are already granted by the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979. Regulation 4 grants powers to local weights and measures authorities (in Great Britain) and district councils (in Northern Ireland) to apply to Court for forfeiture orders in respect of goods which contravene the prohibition in regulation 2. No such powers are conferred on officers of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs since all necessary powers are already granted by the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979. Regulation 5 makes it a criminal offence (carrying a maximum penalty of a fine at level 3 on the standard scale) for a person intentionally to obstruct or fail to co-operate with an officer exercising powers granted under regulation 4. Data (including personal data) which needs to be transferred between enforcement authorities and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs for the purposes of enforcing these Regulations will be transferred through existing powers conferred by section 19 of the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001. A full Impact Assessment has been carried out and a copy has been placed in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament, together with a transposition note. Copies may be obtained from the Trade Policy Unit of the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, 1 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0ET.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

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