Destruction without sampling

Q: Is regulation 1C of The Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2008 (revoked) a strict liability offence?

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.

regulation 1C of The Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2008 (revoked)

Status not determined
Strict liability
Food, consumer protection, trading standards, product safety and age-restricted sales

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

1C Any person who destroys the body of
a bovine animal to which paragraph 1A applies before it has undergone sampling at an approved sampling site, except in accordance with
a direction of the Secretary of State, commits an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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: breaching the provision
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 1C?

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.

On these words an offence is committed where a person destroys the body of a bovine animal to which paragraph 1A applies before it has undergone sampling at an approved sampling site, except in accordance with a direction of the Secretary of State.
Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2008.

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.

Sentencing organisations: fines and the means of a corporate defendant All courts in England and Wales
How a fine on a company is arrived at from its turnover. Relevant far beyond the guidelines that state it, because a very large share of the offences in this corpus can only be committed by an organisation.
Health and safety offences, corporate manslaughter and food safety and hygiene offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 February 2016
Covers breaches of duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the regulations made under it, and food safety and food hygiene offences. Sentencing turns on culpability and on the seriousness and likelihood of harm risked, not only on the harm that happened.
Reduction in sentence for a guilty plea: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 June 2017
The sliding scale of credit for pleading guilty, from one third at the first stage of proceedings downwards.
General guideline: overarching principles All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 October 2019
The guideline a court uses when there is no offence-specific guideline, which is the position for the overwhelming majority of offences created by statutory instrument. It sets out how culpability and harm are assessed from first principles.
Totality: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales
How to sentence more than one offence at once so that the total is just and proportionate - frequently in point here, because regulatory prosecutions commonly charge several breaches of the same instrument.

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

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

Placing on the market or export to third countries of bovine productsparagraph 1A(1) of SCHEDULE
Placing on the market or export to third countries of bovine animalsparagraph 1B(1) of SCHEDULE
Export to member States of heads and un-split carcasesparagraph 2 of SCHEDULE
Export to third countries of products containing specified risk materialparagraph 3 of SCHEDULE
For the purpose of monitoring under Article 6 of the Community TSE Regulation, a person who has in their…regulation 1(1)
For the purpose of monitoring under Article 6 of the Community TSE Regulation, a person who has in their…regulation 1A(1)
Persons collecting and deliveringregulation 1B
Retention of bodies of bovine animals pending test resultsregulation 1D
Notification of the body of a goat for the purpose of monitoring under Article 6 of the Community TSE…regulation 6
Delivery of the body of a bovine animal for the purpose of monitoring under Article 6 of the Community TSE…regulation 6(a)
Persons collecting and delivering 1B A person with whom arrangements are made under paragraph 1A for the…regulation 6(a)
Destruction without sampling 1C Any person who destroys the body of a bovine animal to which paragraph 1A…regulation 6(a)

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”
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

This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
The Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2008 (revoked) Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
Food, consumer protection, trading standards, product safety and age-restricted salesOther offences on the same subject
Offences created in 2008