UK Offence Report

Penalties

regulation 7(1) of The Controlled Drugs (Drug Precursors)(Intra-Community Trade) 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

1 An operator who fails to comply with any of the requirements imposed by Article

3 of the Community Regulation (requirements for placing on the market of scheduled substances) is guilty of an offence and liable—

a on summary conviction, to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding

3 months or

a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or both;

b on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding two years or

a fine or 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
an operator
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 an operator 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 7(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. On these words an offence is committed where an operator fails to comply with any of the requirements imposed by Article 3 of the Community Regulation (requirements for placing on the market of scheduled substances).
  2. Being served with a notice under the Controlled Drugs (Drug Precursors)(Intra-Community Trade) Regulations 2008 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  3. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  4. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
3 months
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
7 February 2008
In force from
7 March 2008
Extent
E+W+S+NI

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 Council Regulation (EC) 273/2004 (“the Community Regulation”). The Community Regulation itself requires operators who possess or place on the market a scheduled substance (substances useful for the manufacture of controlled drugs, known as drug precursors) to have a licence where that substance is in Category 1 of Annex I to the Community Regulation and to register where that substance is in Category 2 of Annex I to that Regulation. It permits such licences to be issued either for a specified duration or to be subject to a reporting requirement and permits Member States to operate a special system of licensing and registration for particular persons. The Community Regulation requires operators to appoint a responsible officer before placing on the market a scheduled substance in Category 1 or 2 of Annex I to the Community Regulation and imposes obligations on operators in respect of the documentation, recording and labelling of such substances. It also requires operators to inform the competent authorities of any circumstances which suggest that scheduled substances might be diverted for the illicit manufacture of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances and to provide those competent authorities every 6 months with a summary of the transactions involving scheduled substances used and supplied in that period. The Community Regulation requires Member States to adopt the measures necessary to enable the competent authorities to obtain information on any orders for or operations involving scheduled substances, to enter operators’ business premises to obtain evidence of irregularities and, where necessary, to detain consignments that fail to comply with the Community Regulation. It also requires Member States to determine the penalties applicable to infringements of the provisions of the Community Regulation. Regulation 3 of these Regulations specifies which authorities will perform the role given to competent authorities under the Community Regulation. Regulation 4 of these Regulations provides that licences shall be issued for a period of 3 years and regulation 5 specifies the extent of the special system of licensing and registration that the Secretary of State will operate. Regulation 6(1) of these Regulations provides that the requirements under Articles 5, 7 and 8 of the Community Regulation are to be treated as if they are requirements imposed by regulations made under section 13(1) of the Criminal Justice (International Co-operation) Act 1990 (“the 1990 Act”). The 1990 Act provides for penalties for breaches of regulations made under section 13(1) of that Act and regulation 6(2) of these Regulations modifies that penalty in respect of the requirements under Articles 5, 7 and 8 of the Community Regulation. Regulation 7 of these Regulations specifies that it is an offence to fail to comply with a requirement imposed by Article 3 of the Community Regulation and specifies the penalty for that offence. These Regulations therefore enable breaches of the Community Regulation to be penalised. Regulation 8 of these Regulations applies for the purposes of executing Article 3 of the Community Regulation. It provides the power under section 23(1) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 to enter premises of a person carrying on a business as a producer or supplier of any scheduled substance and to demand the production of, and to inspect, any books or documents relating to dealing in any such drugs and to inspect any stocks of any such drugs. These Regulations therefore enable breaches of the Community Regulation to be investigated. Regulation 9 of these Regulations revokes the Controlled Drugs (Substances Useful for Manufacture) (Intra-Community Trade) Regulations 1993 (“the 1993 Regulations”) but provides that the 1993 Regulations will continue to have effect in respect of any offence committed under them in respect of which criminal proceedings have been commenced before the commencement of these Regulations. Regulation 8 of these Regulations also provides that the validity of any licence or customer declaration issued, or register established, under the 1993 Regulations is not affected by the revocation.

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