UK Offence Report

Export to third countries of products containing specified risk material

paragraph 3 of SCHEDULE of The Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (England) (Amendment) Regulations 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

3 In accordance with point 10(3) of Annex V to the Community TSE Regulation, it is an offence for any person to export (or offer to export) heads or fresh meat of bovine, ovine or caprine animals containing specified risk material to third countries.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 paragraph 3 of SCHEDULE?

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 it is an offence to export (or offer to export) heads or fresh meat of bovine, ovine or caprine animals containing specified risk material to third countries.
  2. Moving the goods across the border under the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2008 without the licence the instrument requires.
  3. Holding a licence for one consignment and using it for another.
  4. Sending goods in transit through the United Kingdom, where the provision catches transit as well as import and export.

Penalty

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

no penalty is stated here: this instrument amends another one, and the penalty for the offence is in the instrument being amended.

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
22 December 2008
In force from
12 January 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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations amend the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (England) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/1881, amended by S.I. 2008/2269) which enforce Regulation (EC) No 999/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down rules for the prevention, control and eradication of certain transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (OJ No L 147, 31.5.2001, p1) as amended. Regulation 2 (interpretation) is amended to include a reference to Commission Decision 2008/908/EC authorising certain Member States to revise their annual BSE monitoring programme (OJ No L 327, 5.12.2008, p24) in the definition of “Community TSE Regulation” (regulation 3). Regulation 20 (enforcement) is amended to make the Food Standards Agency the enforcement authority in slaughterhouses and cutting plants in respect of all of the restrictions on placing on the market and exporting products contained in Schedule 8, save those in paragraph 1B (regulation 5). Schedule 2 (TSE monitoring) is amended to place a duty on those in possession of fallen bovine stock to deliver or arrange for the delivery of carcases to an approved sampling site for brain stem sampling. Those collecting and delivering the carcases of the fallen stock are required to ensure that they are delivered to an approved sampling site. Failure to comply with these provisions is an offence. The requirements do not apply in the Isle of Wight (regulation 6). Schedule 2 is also amended to create new offences of destroying a carcase to which these provisions apply before it has been sampled and of failing to retain carcases prior to obtaining a negative test result, and to make provision for the approval of sampling sites by the Secretary of State (regulation 6). A substituted Schedule 8 (restrictions on placing on the market and export) makes it an offence to place on the market and export live bovine animals born or reared in the United Kingdom before 1st August 1996 and products derived from them (other than milk or hides) to other Member States and to third countries; restricts the export of heads and un-split carcases containing specified risk material to other member States; and prohibits the export of bovine heads and meat containing such material to third countries (regulation 9). Offences are punishable in accordance with regulation 18 of the 2008 Regulations by— a on summary conviction, a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or imprisonment for a term of three months or both, or b on conviction on indictment, a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both. An impact assessment on the effect of this instrument on the costs of business has been prepared and placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Copies may be obtained from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 9 Millbank, c/o 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 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 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