UK Offence Report

Offences relating to prohibitions and restrictions in the dual-use Regulation

article 35(7) of The Export Control Order 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

7 A person who fails to comply with Article 16 (record-keeping), 21(5) (records of exportation and transfer of listed items within the customs territory) or 21(7) (requirement in relation to commercial documents for exportation and transfer of listed items within the customs territory) of the dual-use Regulation commits an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

3 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 article 35(7)?

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 Export Control Order 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
Not determined
Standard scale
Level 3
Maximum prison (summary)
6 months
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

the level is stated but no money value is given: this instrument extends outside the United Kingdom, where the standard scale set by s.122(1) of the Sentencing Act 2020 does not run.

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
15 December 2008
In force from
6 April 2009
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 consolidates Orders made under the Export Control Act 2002, with some changes. As a consequence the Export of Goods, Transfer of Technology and Provision of Technical Assistance (Control) Order 2003, the Trade in Goods (Control) Order 2003, the Trade in Controlled Goods (Embargoed Destinations) Order 2004 and the Technical Assistance Control Regulations 2006 and various provisions amending them are revoked (article 45). This Order is now where penalty and licensing provisions are to be found relating to Council Regulation (EC) No 1334/2000 (the “dual-use Regulation”) and Council Regulation (EC) No 1236/2005 (the “torture Regulation”). These cover, respectively, goods, software and technology that can be used for both civil and military purposes and goods that can be used for capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Part 2 of the Order also supplements the directly applicable provisions of these Regulations by extending their controls, in particular to cover additional goods (see articles 4 and 5), intra-Community transfers and goods in transit (in the circumstances set out in 6, 7, 8 and 9) and different types of transfers of technology (see articles 10, 11 and 12). Military goods, software and technology are not covered by the Community legislation so these are the subject of article 3. The list of military goods, software and technology in Schedule 2 is based on the Wassenaar Arrangement military list (the Wassenaar Arrangement is an international regime for controlling conventional arms) but national controls (listed as “PL . . .”) have been added. The remaining provisions of Part 2 are exceptions from the controls, notably covering scheduled flights and other low-risk movements of aircraft and vessels, firearms (to the extent they are the subject of other controls pursuant to Council Directive 91/477/EEC), transit and transhipment, and transfers of software and technology that are of little concern. The extent of the transit and transhipment exception varies according to the type of goods and their destination. A change from the previous Orders is that a more extensive list of countries is subject to transit and transhipment controls in relation to a range of sensitive items including small arms and light weapons. Part 3 contains a prohibition relating to the provision of technical assistance in relation to chemical, biological or nuclear weapons programmes. Part 4 contains controls relating to movements of goods between countries other than the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man. The level of control varies according to the sensitivity of the goods, which are organised into three categories (A to C, A being goods with the highest level of sensitivity such as torture equipment), and category B now includes light weapons. In relation to both category A and B there are controls on United Kingdom persons acting outside the United Kingdom. However, for category B, certain ancillary activities are not covered (see article 22(3)). Transportation services are newly covered for this category but drivers, pilots etc. providing services to transport contractors already within the controls are not caught in their own right. Category C exempts transportation services completely along with other ancillary activities (see article 23(2)). Parts 5 to 7 all relate back to the earlier provisions. Part 5 contains provisions about licences. In particular, there are provisions about record keeping by licence holders (articles 29 and 30) and inspection of the relevant records (article 31) and appeals from licensing decisions (article 33). Part 6 contains provisions about offences and the powers of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs who will enforce the Order. Offences relating to exportation out of the United Kingdom without a licence are dealt with in the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979 (sections 68 and 170). Part 7, as well as the revocations noted above, contains provisions about the use of information received in the course of operating the controls (article 43). An Impact Assessment has been prepared in respect of this Order and is annexed to the Explanatory Memorandum which is available alongside the instrument on the OPSI website.

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 “commits an offence”; the provision states liability on summary conviction; the provision states a penalty in older drafting
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