UK Offence Report

Offences in relation to designated persons

article 3(1) of The Export Control (Eritrea and Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2011

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

1 A person who contravenes any of the following provisions of the Regulation commits an offence—

a Article 8(1)(a) (prohibition on provision of technical assistance related to military activities or to the provision of military goods and technology to any designated person);

b Article 8(1)(b) (prohibition on provision of financing or financial assistance related to military activities or to the provision etc. of military goods and technology to any designated person).

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
dealing with funds or making them available in breach of sanctions
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. On these words an offence is committed where a person contravenes any of the following provisions of the Regulation.
  2. Moving, converting or paying away funds that belong to a designated person under the Export Control (Eritrea and Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2011, without a licence from the Treasury.
  3. Making funds or economic resources available to a designated person - which includes paying a third party who will pass on the benefit.
  4. Dealing with an asset in ignorance of the designation is still caught where the provision imposes no knowledge requirement; check the fault element stated below before assuming otherwise.

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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Export Control (Amendment) Order 2019
Revoked on
30 June 2019
Made
18 May 2011
In force from
13 June 2011
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

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 relating to the enforcement of certain measures against Eritrea set out in Council Regulation (EU) No 667/2010 (“the Regulation”). The Regulation implements the sanctions imposed by Council Decision 2010/127/CFSP as amended by Council Decision 2010/414/CFSP which in turn implement the restrictive measures contained in the United Nations Security Council Resolution UNSCR 1907 (2009) of 23 December 2009. 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 addresses a limited overlap with the Export Control Order 2008 (“the 2008 Order”). It provides that if someone acts in a way that would breach both the Regulation – leading to an offence under this Order – and the 2008 Order, that person only commits an offence under this Order. Article 5 sets out the penalties relating to the offences in the Order. The most serious penalties are reserved for knowing and intentionally participating in activities designed to circumvent the prohibitions in the Regulation. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs will enforce the provisions of the Order. Article 6 ensures that the same ancillary provisions as apply to their enforcement of customs and excise legislation apply in this context. Article 7 makes a technical amendment to the Export Control (North Korea) Order 2007 in order to implement the further amendment to Council Regulation (EC) No 329/2007 made by Council Regulation (EU) No 567/2010. Article 9 requires the Secretary of State to review the operation and effect of this Order and publish a report within five years after it comes into force and within every five years after that. Following a review it will fall to the Secretary of State to consider whether the Order should remain as it is, or be revoked or be amended. A further instrument would be needed to revoke the Order or to amend it. A regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as it has no or minimal impact on business, charities or voluntary bodies. A copy of the Explanatory Memorandum is published alongside the Order on www.legislation.gov.uk. Further information is available from the Export Control Organisation, BIS, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET and on BIS website (www.bis.gov.uk).

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