UK Offence Report

Offences in relation to provisions of the Commission Regulation

article 8(2) of The Sea Fishing (Landing and Weighing of Herring, Mackerel and Horse Mackerel) Order 2009 (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

2 A person is guilty of an offence if that person fails to comply with

a provision of the Commission Regulation specified in the left column of Part

2 of the Schedule.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to do something the instrument requires
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 8(2)?

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 a person fails to comply with a provision of the Commission Regulation specified in the left column of Part 2 of the Schedule.
  2. Not doing what the provision requires under the Sea Fishing (Landing and Weighing of Herring, Mackerel and Horse Mackerel) Order 2009, by the time it requires it to be done.
  3. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

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

'to a fine' with no stated maximum.

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
8 July 2009
In force from
12 August 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 makes provision for the enforcement of restrictions and obligations relating to the landing and weighing of herring, mackerel and horse mackerel contained in Commission Regulation (EC) No 1542/2007 (OJ No L 337, 21.12.2007, p. 56) (“the Commission Regulation”). Article 4 designates the ports for the landing of herring, mackerel and horse mackerel. Article 5 designates the competent authority for purposes of the Commission Regulation. Article 6 provides that the Secretary of State may approve a weighing system for weighing herring, mackerel or horse mackerel, and article 7 provides that it is an offence for a person to fail to comply with provisions of the Commission Regulation relating to the weighing of fresh fish. Article 8 provides that it is an offence to contravene, or fail to comply with, the provisions of the Commission Regulation specified in the Schedule. These offences relate to the landing of herring, mackerel and horse mackerel in designated ports, the keeping and production of documents relating to the catch, the procedures for weighing of fresh and frozen fish, and the labelling of frozen fish. Article 9 sets out the penalties for an offence contained in this Order, and article 10 contains provisions relating to the recovery of fines. Articles 11 to 14 set out the powers of British sea-fishery officers in relation to the enforcement of this Order. Article 19 contains a revocation. An impact assessment of the effect that this Order will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sector is available from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Sea Fisheries Conservation Division, Nobel House, 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 0.92.

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