UK Offence Report

Offences related to military items

article 3(1) of The Export Control (Guinea) Order 2010 (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

1 A person who contravenes Article 3(a) (prohibition on provision to Guinea of technical assistance or brokering services related to military items) or (b) (prohibition on provision to Guinea of financing or financial assistance related to military items) of the Regulation 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
contravening a requirement of the instrument
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; other provisions of the same instrument use a mens rea word while this one does not (the Cundy v Le Cocq contrast).

What would breach article 3(1)?

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. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Export Control (Guinea) Order 2010, whatever the reason for doing it.
  2. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

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
18 February 2010
In force from
20 February 2010
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 creates offences relating to provisions of Council Regulation (EU) No 1284/2009 (“the Regulation”) that fall within the remit of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The Regulation relates to Guinea (also known as the Republic of Guinea) and implements, so far as is possible within the framework of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the sanctions imposed by Council Common Position 2009/788/CFSP as amended by Council Decision 2009/1003/CFSP. Articles 2 and 3 create offences for contravention of the provisions of the Regulation referred to there. There are already offences in sections 68 and 170 of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979 that relate to prohibited exportation of goods (from the United Kingdom). Article 4 supplements the provisions of the Regulation that allow a competent authority to authorise activities that are otherwise prohibited. Article 4(1) makes it an offence knowingly or recklessly to provide false information for the purpose of obtaining an authorisation. Authorisations may be subject to requirements or conditions that continue even after the activity authorised has been carried out. Article 4(2) makes it an offence to fail to comply with such continuing requirements or conditions unless they were imposed after the activity was carried out or amended after that time in such a way as to give rise to non-compliance. Article 5 addresses a limited overlap with the Export Control Order 2008 (“the 2008 Order”). It provides that if someone acts within the terms of an authorisation issued under the Regulation, they cannot breach the 2008 Order. Equally, if someone acts in a way that would breach both the Regulation – leading to an offence under this Order – and the 2008 Order, they only commit an offence under this Order. Article 6 sets out the penalties relating to the offences in the Order. The most serious penalties are reserved for the sale, supply, transfer or exportation of goods or technology that could be used for internal repression, related brokering services (but just those related to goods), and brokering services related to goods on the Common Military List of the European Union. Exportation from the United Kingdom being dealt with in sections 68 and 170 of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979, Article 6(6) modifies the maximum penalty under those sections for contravening an export prohibition in the Regulation relating to such equipment. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs will enforce the provisions of the Order. Article 7 ensures that the same ancillary provisions as apply to their enforcement of customs and excise legislation apply in this context. A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen.

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 “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