UK Offence Report

Extent and application

regulation 2(1) of The Cat and Dog Fur (Control of Movement etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2022

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 Any person who contravenes Article

3 of Regulation (EC) No 1523/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council banning the placing on the market and the import to, or export from, the Community of cat and dog fur, and products containing such fur, is guilty of an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
importing or exporting without authority
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.

What would breach regulation 2(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. Moving the goods across the border under the Cat and Dog Fur (Control of Movement etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2022 without the licence the instrument requires.
  2. Holding a licence for one consignment and using it for another.
  3. Sending goods in transit through the United Kingdom, where the provision catches transit as well as import and export.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland.

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
27 September 2022
In force from
28 September 2022
Extent
E+W+S

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 are made in exercise of the powers in sections 8(1) and 8C(1) of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act2018 (c. 16) (“the Act”). Part 2 amends deficiencies in the retained domestic version of Regulation (EC) No 1523/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council banning the import, export and placing on the market of cat and dog fur and products containing such fur (“the EC Regulation”), as that Regulation applies in Great Britain. A regulation making power is conferred on the Secretary of State to derogate from the general prohibition in Article 3 of the EC Regulation by permitting the movement of cat and dog fur and products containing such fur to or from Great Britain from any other country or territory and the placing on the market in Great Britain of any such fur or products for educational or taxidermy purposes. The EC Regulation directly applies to and in the United Kingdom in respect of Northern Ireland by virtue of the application of section 7A of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland to the EU withdrawal agreement. Parts 3 and 4 of these Regulations amend the Cat and Dog Fur (Control of Import, Export and Placing on the Market) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/2795) (“the 2008 Regulations”) as those Regulations apply in England and Wales and Scotland, and Northern Ireland respectively. The amendments ensure that the penalties imposed under the 2008 Regulations apply throughout the United Kingdom to the import, export and placing on the market of cat and dog fur and products containing such fur where this constitutes an offence under either Article 3 of the EC Regulation as it directly applies in Northern Ireland or Article 3 of the retained EC Regulation, as amended by Part 2 of these Regulations, as it applies in Great Britain. The amendments made by Part 4 also provide that the movement of cat and dog fur and products containing such fur from Northern Ireland to Great Britain is not to be treated as an offence contravening the prohibition in Article 3 of the EC Regulation as it directly applies in Northern Ireland. This is provided that the fur or the products in question are “qualifying Northern Ireland goods” as defined in regulations made under section 8C(6) of the Act. This is in line with the principle of unfettered movement of goods within the United Kingdom as set out in Article 6(1) of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland to the EU withdrawal agreement. Nonetheless the placement on the market of these products remains prohibited throughout the United Kingdom. An 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

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