UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Agriculture, Animals, Environment and Food etc. (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2012

the instrument as a whole of The Agriculture, Animals, Environment and Food etc. (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2012

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

Contravening this instrument is an offence under section

73 of the Animal Health Act 1981. The instrument itself contains no offence-creating words.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Not determined

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.

Classifier’s reasoning: contravention offences of this kind are strict as to the breach; the fault position is governed by the parent Act and was not read from it.

What would breach the instrument as a whole?

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 what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Agriculture, Animals, Environment and Food etc. (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2012.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Set by another provision — the instrument states the penalty by reference to an Act or to another regulation
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

The instrument does not state a penalty itself. It sets one by reference to section 73 of the Animal Health Act 1981.

the penalty is in the parent Act, not in this instrument.

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
15 November 2012
In force from
24 December 2012
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 amendments to several enactments which fall within the policy responsibility of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Articles 2 to 12, 14 to 34 and 36 to 46 amend the enactments to provide that the Secretary of State may delegate the prosecution of offences under the enactments to the Director of Public Prosecutions. The Order makes further amendments as follows. Article 5 amends the Disease Control (England) Order 2003 (S.I. 2003/1729) to clarify the position with respect to movements of animals into England from Scotland or Wales. Article 13 revokes the Salmonella in Turkey Flocks and Slaughter Pigs (Survey Powers) (England) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/2821). Article 18 amends the Cattle Identification Regulations 2007 (S.I. 2007/529) to update references to EU legislation. Article 22 amends the Control of Salmonella in Poultry Order 2007 (S.I. 2007/3574) to update references to EU legislation. Article 25 amends the Bluetongue Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/962), correcting an error referred to in the 10th Report of Session 2012-13 of the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments (HL Paper 60; HC 135-x, published on 13th November 2012). The amendment is to the date by which the Secretary of State must publish the first report reviewing the Regulations. Article 28 amends the Control of Salmonella in Broiler Flocks Order 2009 (S.I. 2009/260) to update references to EU legislation. Article 33 amends the Control of Salmonella in Turkey Flocks Order 2009 (S.I. 2009/3271) to correct references to EU legislation. Article 34 amends the Agriculture (Cross compliance) (No. 2) Regulations 2009 (S.I. 2009/3365), correcting errors referred to in the 42nd Report of Session 2010-12 of the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments (HL Paper 271; HC 354-xlii, published on 13th March 2012). It amends certain provisions relating to the standard of good agricultural condition which apply as minimum requirements for the purposes of Article 6 of, and Annex 3 to, Council Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 establishing common rules for direct support schemes for farmers under the common agricultural policy and establishing certain support schemes for farmers (OJ No L 30, 31.1.2009, p.16). The amendments are to the exemptions that the Secretary of State may give from the rules on overgrazing and unsuitable supplementary feeding, the management of land not in agricultural production and the control of weeds. Article 35 amends the Poultry Compartments (England) Order 2010 (S.I. 2010/108) to change references in article 4(1)(a) to “certified” and “certification”. In so doing, it corrects errors referred to in the 10th Report of Session 2009-10 of the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments (HL Paper 87; HC 3-x, published on 16th March 2010). Article 39 amends the Poultrymeat (England) Regulations 2011 (S.I. 2011/452) to modify the powers of entry for officers to enforce those Regulations. Article 43 amends the Environmental Protection (Controls on Ozone-Depleting Substances) Regulations 2011 (S.I. 2011/1543), correcting errors referred to in the 29th Report of Session 2010-12 of the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments (HL Paper 205; HC 354-xxvix, published on 25th October 2011). Regulation 8(3) is amended so that it provides that the powers described in that regulation are extended to the marine area, not offshore area, and a definition of “marine area” is inserted into regulation 2. Article 46 amends the Wine Regulations 2011 (S.I. 2011/2936) to clarify which officers may enter premises to enforce those Regulations. This corrects an error referred to in the 41st Report of Session 2010-12 of the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments (HL Paper 268; HC 354-xli, published on 6th March 2012). The Reports of the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments referred to in this Note are available on Parliament’s website at www.parliament.uk. No impact assessment has been prepared for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen.

Read the full note and every offence in this 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 0.55.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.55 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