UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties: licensing and registration

regulation 8 of The Controlled Drugs (Drug Precursors)(Community External 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

8 An operator who fails to comply with any of the requirements imposed by Article 6 or 7 of the Community Regulation (licensing and registration of operators) is guilty of an offence and liable to the penalties specified in regulation 9(2).

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 8?

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 6 or 7 of the Community Regulation (licensing and registration of operators).
  2. Being served with a notice under the Controlled Drugs (Drug Precursors)(Community External 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
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

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
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) No. 111/2005 (“the Community Regulation”). The Community Regulation itself imposes obligations on operators in respect of the documentation, recording and labelling of scheduled substances (substances useful for the manufacture of controlled drugs, known as drug precursors). It also requires operators engaged in the export or import or in intermediary activities involving scheduled substances to have a licence where those substances are in Category 1 of the Annex to the Community Regulation and to register where those substances are in Category 2 of that Annex. It requires operators to notify the competent authorities about their export, import or intermediary activities and about any circumstances which suggest that scheduled substances intended for import, export or intermediary activities might be diverted for the illicit manufacture of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances. The Community Regulation also imposes obligations on operators to obtain an export authorisation prior to exporting scheduled substances that require a customs declaration and to obtain an import authorisation prior to importing scheduled substances in Category 1 of the Annex to the Community Regulation. 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 to establish that a diversion or attempted diversion of scheduled substances has taken place. 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 limits the validity of a licence issued under Article 6(1) of the Community Regulation to 3 years. The power to make this provision is found at Article 9 of the Commission Regulation (EC) no 1277/2005. Regulation 5 of these Regulations provides that the requirements under Articles 3 to 5, 8, 9, 14 and 22 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”) so that it will be a criminal offence to breach these requirements. The 1990 Act provides for penalties for breaches of regulations made under section 13(1) of that Act and regulation 5(3) of these Regulations modifies that penalty in respect of the requirements under Articles 3 to 5, 8, 9, 14 and 22 of the Community Regulation. Penalties under sections 50 and 68 of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979 will apply to breaches of Articles 20 and 12 of the Community Regulation respectively, subject to those specific modifications made to those penalties by regulations 6(4) and 7(4) of these Regulations. Regulations 6(5) and 7(5) of these Regulations provide that it will be an offence to fail to comply with any requirements specified in regulations 6 and 7. Regulation 8 of these Regulations provides that it is an offence to fail to comply with the requirements of Article 6 or 7 of the Community Regulation. Regulation 9(2) of these Regulations specifies the penalty in respect of an offence under regulation 6(5), 7(5) or 8 of these Regulations. These Regulations therefore enable breaches of the Community Regulation to be penalised. Regulation 10 of these Regulations applies, for the purposes of executing Articles 6 and 7 of the Community Regulation and regulations 6 and 7 of these Regulations, 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 11 of these Regulations revokes the Controlled Drugs (Substances Useful for Manufacture) Regulations 1991 (“the 1991 Regulations”) and the Controlled Drugs (Substances Useful for Manufacture) (Amendment) Regulations 1992 but provides that the 1991 Regulations will continue to have effect in respect of any offence committed under them before the commencement of these Regulations.

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