UK Offence Report

Offences related to EU authorisations

regulation 5(3) of The Export Control (Sudan and South Sudan Sanctions) and (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2011

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

3 A person who, having acted under the authority of an EU authorisation, fails to comply with

a requirement or condition of the EU authorisation commits an offence and may be arrested, unless—

a the EU authorisation was modified after the completion of the act authorised; and

b the alleged failure to comply would not have been

a failure had the EU authorisation not been so modified.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 comply with a notice or direction
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 regulation 5(3)?

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. Being served with a notice under the Export Control (Sudan and South Sudan Sanctions) and (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2011 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  2. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  3. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

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 (Sudan, South Sudan and Central African Republic Sanctions) Regulations 2014 (revoked)
Revoked on
31 December 2014
Made
6 December 2011
In force from
30 December 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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations make provision for penalties and enforcement of certain restrictive measures in Council Regulation (EC) No 131/2004 imposing certain restrictive measures in respect of Sudan and South Sudan (“the Sudan and South Sudan Regulation”). The measures include prohibitions on the provision of technical assistance, financing or financial assistance related to military activities to any person, entity or body in, or for use in Sudan or South Sudan. Regulation 2(1) revokes the Sudan (Technical Assistance and Financing and Financial Assistance)(Penalties and Licenses) Regulations 2004 (S.I. 2004/373), which are replaced by these Regulations. Regulation 4 makes it an offence to contravene provisions in Articles 2 and 3 of the Sudan and South Sudan Regulation. Regulation 5 supplements the provisions of the Sudan and South Sudan Regulation that allow a competent authority to authorise activities that are otherwise prohibited. Regulation 5(1) makes it an offence knowingly and recklessly to provide false information for the purpose of obtaining an authorisation. Authorisations may be subject to requirements or conditions which continue even after the activity authorised has been carried out. Regulation 5(3) 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. Regulation 6 sets out the penalties relating to the offences in regulations 4 and 5. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs will enforce the provisions of the Regulations. Regulation 7 provides that the ancillary provisions which apply to their enforcement of customs and excise legislation apply to the enforcement of these Regulations. Regulation 8 amends Part 2 of Schedule 4 to the Export Control Order 2008 (S.I.2008/3231) to make South Sudan an ‘embargoed destination’ for the purposes of the application of trade controls under that Order. Regulation 9 requires the Secretary of State to review the operation and effect of these Regulations and publish a report within five years after they come into force and within every five years after that. Following a review it will fall to the Secretary of State to consider whether the Regulations should remain as they are, or be revoked or be amended. A further instrument would be needed to revoke the Regulations or to amend them. Regulation 10 amends the instruments listed in that regulation so as to revoke the provisions which deal with the limited overlap between the Export Control Order 2008 and those instruments. 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 this instrument 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