UK Offence Report

1 An owner is guilty of an offence if the owner breaches a prohibition, or fails to comply with a…

regulation 24(1) of The Equine Identification (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 An owner is guilty of an offence if the owner breaches a prohibition, or fails to comply with a requirement, which applies to an owner (including an owner as a responsible person) in Parts 2 and 3 or in the EU Regulation.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
an owner
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 an owner 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.

What would breach regulation 24(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 an owner breaches a prohibition, or fails to comply with a requirement, which applies to an owner (including an owner as a responsible person) in Parts 2 and 3 or in the EU Regulation.
  2. Being served with a notice under the Equine Identification (England) Regulations 2018 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  3. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  4. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

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
22 June 2018
In force from
Not determined
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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations supplement, and make provision for the enforcement, of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/262 (the “EU Regulation”) in England. They provide for the identification of equine animals, and replace the Horse Passports Regulations 2009 (S.I. 2009/1611). Part 2 of the Regulations contains provisions which set out various administrative and procedural requirements. In particular, regulation 3 designates the Secretary of State as the competent authority and the zootechnical authority for the purposes of the EU Regulation. Other provisions in Part 2 set out various requirements in relation to the identification of equine animals and the identity document in relation to an equine animal. Part 3 sets out various exceptions in relation to wild or semi-wild equine animals. Part 4 sets out various criminal offences for breach of provisions of these Regulations and the EU Regulation. Part 5 contains provisions about enforcement and penalties and gives powers to inspectors of enforcing local authorities. In particular, regulation 37 provides that enforcing local authorities may choose to apply civil sanctions instead of criminal penalties where they are sure that an offence has been committed. Part 6 then sets out the civil sanctions that are available to enforcing local authorities. Part 7 sets out miscellaneous provisions, in particular for the review of these Regulations and the revocation of the Horse Passports Regulations 2009. A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

How this became law

This instrument became law without a debate or a vote. Under the negative procedure it took effect unless a motion to stop it succeeded, and none was tabled.

Neither House could have amended it. A statutory instrument is put to each House as a whole thing, to be approved or not; the Houses can reject an instrument or record their regret, but they cannot change a word of it. That is the constitutional position for every offence on this site.

The full procedural history →

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 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person is “guilty of 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