UK Offence Report

Amendment to the Export Control (Syria Sanctions Order) 2013

article 19 of The Export Control (North Korea Sanctions and Iran, Ivory Coast and Syria Amendment) Order 2017

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

19 The Export Control (Syria Sanctions) Order 2013 is amended as follows—

a in article 4, for “a person shall not (directly or indirectly) export, supply or transfer” substitute “a person commits an offence and may be arrested if that person (directly or indirectly) exports, supplies or transfers”; and

b in article 5(1), for “a person shall not (directly or indirectly) provide” substitute “a person commits an offence and may be arrested if that person (directly or indirectly) provides”.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
selling or supplying something the instrument restricts
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 19?

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 it is an offence to (directly or indirectly) export, supply or transfer” substitute “a person commits an offence and may be arrested if that person (directly or indirectly) exports, supplies or transfers”.
  2. Selling the goods under the Export Control (North Korea Sanctions and Iran, Ivory Coast and Syria Amendment) Order 2017 where the instrument prohibits the sale outright.
  3. Supplying without carrying out a check the instrument requires first, even where the sale would otherwise be lawful.
  4. Offering for sale counts as well as selling: displaying stock is enough where the provision reaches an offer.

Penalty

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

no penalty is stated here: this instrument amends another one, and the penalty for the offence is in the instrument being amended.

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 (North Korea Sanctions) Order 2018 (revoked)
Revoked on
14 March 2018
Made
27 January 2017
In force from
22 February 2017
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 provides for the enforcement of trade restrictions against North Korea specified in Regulation (EC) No 329/2007 concerning restrictive measures against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (OJ No L 88, 29.3.2007, p.1) (the “North Korea Regulation”) as last amended by Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/80 (OJ No L 12, 17.1.2017, p.86). This Order revokes the Export Control (North Korea and Ivory Coast Sanctions and Syria Amendment) Order 2013 (S.I. 2013/3182). Articles 5 to 12 create offences for contravention of the trade restrictions in the North Korea Regulation. Article 13 creates offences for the circumvention of the trade restrictions in the North Korea Regulation. Article 14 supplements the provisions of the North Korea Regulation that allow a competent authority to authorise activities that are otherwise prohibited. Article 14(1) makes it an offence knowingly and recklessly to provide false information for the purpose of obtaining an authorisation and article 8(3) makes it an offence to fail to comply with authorisation requirements or conditions. Article 15 sets out the penalties relating to the offences in the Order. Article 16 applies the ancillary provisions relevant to the enforcement of customs and excise legislation to the enforcement of this Order. Article 17 omits Ivory Coast from the list in Part 2 of Schedule 4 to the Export Control Order 2008 (S.I. 2008/3231) and inserts it into the list in Part 4 of Schedule 4 to that Order, reflecting the fact that the Ivory Coast is no longer an embargoed destination. Article 18 makes a minor amendment to the Export Control (Iran Sanctions) Order 2016 (S.I. 2016/503). Article 19 makes a minor amendment to the Export Control (Syria Sanctions) Order 2013 (S.I. 2013/2012). This amendment, along with the amendment to the Export Control Order 2008 in article 17(b)(ii), re-enacts and therefore continues the amendments that were contained in the Export Control (North Korea and Ivory Coast Sanctions and Syria Amendment) Order 2013, which is revoked by this Order. An 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, Department for International Trade, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET and on the gov.uk website (www.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 0.96.

Basis
the provision says a person “commits an offence”
Confidence
0.96 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