UK Offence Report

1 It is an offence for a person, without lawful authority or excuse— a to breach a licence condition; b to…

regulation 20(1) of The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018

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 It is an offence for a person, without lawful authority or excuse— a to breach a licence condition; b to fail to comply with regulation 7 or 19.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 a condition of a licence, permit or consent
Fault element
Mixed — some elements strict, some not
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

The prosecution must prove the conduct, and - for those elements the provision qualifies (intentionally) - the state of mind it names. The remaining elements carry no fault requirement, so they are strict.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: the offence itself carries no fault word, but a duty it criminalises by cross-reference uses intentionally; which element that governs was not determined; qualified by lawful excuse (an element).

The defence, as drafted

1 It is an offence for a person, without lawful authority or excuse— a to breach a licence condition; b to fail to comply with regulation 7 or 19.

What would breach regulation 20(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. Holding a valid licence but doing the thing it allows outside the hours, place or limits its conditions set under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018.
  2. Failing to do something a condition positively requires - a record, a notification, a monitoring step - even though the licensed activity itself is carried on properly.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

'to a fine' with no stated maximum.

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
16 April 2018
In force from
1 October 2018
Extent
E

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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations provide for the licensing of persons involved in England in selling animals as pets, providing or arranging for the provision of boarding for cats or dogs, hiring out horses, breeding dogs and keeping or training animals for exhibition. Regulation 3 specifies these activities for the purposes of section 13(1) of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 (“the 2006 Act”) and provides for local authorities to be the licensing authorities. The consequence of this specification is that, subject to qualifying criteria, any person wishing to carry on any of these activities in England must obtain a licence from their local authority under these Regulations. These requirement replaces the requirement, in England, to be registered under the Performing Animals (Regulation) Act 1925 or to obtain a licence under the Pet Animals Act 1951; the Animal Boarding Establishments Act 1963; the Riding Establishments Act 1964 or the Breeding of Dogs Act 1973. A person who carries on any of these activities in England without a licence under these Regulations commits an offence under section 13(6) of the 2006 Act and is liable to imprisonment for a term of up to six months, a fine or both. Under section 30 of the 2006 Act, local authorities may prosecute for any offence under the Act. Part 2 of the Regulations sets out how a person may apply to the local authority for a licence and sets out matters in respect of which a local authority must be satisfied when considering the granting or renewing of a licence. It provides for a local authority to charge fees to cover the costs it incurs in performing this function, considering a licence holder’s compliance with these Regulations, enforcement and administration. It requires a local authority to have regard to guidance issued by the Secretary of State in carrying out their functions under these Regulations. It makes provision for the inspection of premises and provides powers for inspectors to take samples from animals. Part 3 sets out the circumstances and procedures under which a licence may be suspended, varied or revoked. It also provides that the breach of a condition of a licence or the obstruction of any inspector appointed for the purposes of enforcement of these Regulations is an offence and applies relevant post-conviction powers contained in the 2006 Act. Part 4 provides for appeals against licensing decisions by local authorities. Part 6 makes transitional and saving provision for unexpired licences or registrations under the pre-existing statutory regime and Part 7 contains a requirement for the Secretary of State to carry out reviews of these Regulations and for local authorities to provide information to the Secretary of State for the purpose of such reviews. Schedule 1 describes each type of licensable activity. Schedule 2 sets out the general conditions that apply to all licensable activities and Schedules 3 to 7 set out the specific conditions that apply to each licensable activity. Schedule 8 lists persons who may not apply for a licence and Schedules 9 and 10 provide for repeals, revocations and consequential amendments. An impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs to business and the voluntary sector is available from the Animal Welfare Team of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Area 5B, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR and is published with the Explanatory Memorandum alongside this instrument on www.legislation.gov.uk.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

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 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 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