UK Offence Report

Amendment of the Diseases of Swine Regulations 2014

article 3(32) of The Exotic Animal Disease (Amendment) (England) Order 2026

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

32 In regulation 39 (offences and penalties)— a in paragraph (1), after “fail” insert “, otherwise than in England,”; b after paragraph (1), insert— 1A It is an offence against the Animal Health Act 1981 to fail, in England, to comply with— a regulation 3(3)(a) or (b) (obligations on change in occupation); b regulation 5(1) or (2) (requirement to notify the appropriate authority of suspect pig or carcase of a pig); c regulation 6(3) or (5) (requirements on occupier to comply with initial measures); d regulation 9(3) (movement of a pig in a temporary control zone); e regulation 14(2) (secondary cleansing and disinfection); f regulation 15 (use of approved disinfectants); g regulation 15A(2) or (4) (requirement to comply with veterinary inspector’s instructions as to use of approved or licensed disinfectant); h regulation 18(2), (3A), (4), (4A), (6A), (8), (10A) or (10B) (restocking and testing with sentinel pigs on infected or contact premises); i regulation 19(5)(a) or (b) (obligations on operator of slaughterhouse); j regulation 21(3) (placing feral pig meat on the market without a negative test for disease); k regulation 22A(2) (failure to comply with any measure specified following vaccination of feral pigs in England); l regulation 24(2) (movement restriction in a declared zone); m regulation 27J (general restriction in England on movement of feral pigs); n regulation 28(1A) or (2) (prohibition on vaccination); o regulation 29(10A), (12) or (13) (requirements arising from emergency vaccination); p regulation 30(2) or (3) (requirements relating to pigs vaccinated against classical swine fever or African swine fever); q regulation 31(5), (6A), (8) or (9)(b) (requirements relating to pigs vaccinated against swine vesicular disease); r regulation 31A(3) (conditions attached to designation of premises or plants); s regulation 32(11) (requirement to comply with notice); t regulation 33(5) (requirement to comply with conditions of a licence); u regulation 38 (obstruction); v Schedule 1 (measures on suspect, contact and infected premises); w Schedule 1A (restriction of movement of pig products obtained from pigs kept on premises in England later designated as infected premises); x Schedule 2 (measures in a feral pig investigation or feral pig control zone); y paragraph 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 18, 20, 22, 25, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35(1)(b) or (2), 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41 or 45 of Schedule 3A (measures in controlled zones); z paragraph 1, 3, 5 or 6 of Schedule 4A (cleansing, disinfection and treatment in England). ; c in paragraph (2), after “an offence” insert “under paragraph (1) or (1A)”.

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
obstructing an official exercising a power
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 article 3(32)?

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. Refusing to let an inspector onto premises they are entitled to enter under the Exotic Animal Disease (Amendment) (England) Order 2026.
  2. Sending an official away, or telling staff to say nothing, where the power being exercised does not depend on anyone's consent.
  3. Physically blocking an examination, or removing something an officer has said they intend to inspect.

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
Status not determined
Made
28 April 2026
In force from
29 April 2026
Extent
E+W

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 amends the following— the Products of Animal Origin (Disease Control) (England) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/465); the Diseases of Swine Regulations 2014 (S.I. 2014/1894) (“DOSR”); Commission Decision 2000/428/EC of 4 July 2000 establishing diagnostic procedures, sampling methods and criteria for the evaluation of the results of laboratory tests for the confirmation and differential diagnosis of swine vesicular disease (“Commission Decision 2000/428/EC”); Commission Decision 2002/106/EC of 1 February 2002 approving a Diagnostic Manual establishing diagnostic procedures, sampling methods and criteria for evaluation of the laboratory tests for the confirmation of classical swine fever (“Commission Decision 2002/106/EC”); Commission Decision 2003/422/EC of 26 May 2003 approving an African swine fever diagnostic manual (“Commission Decision 2003/422/EC”). Article 2 amends the Products of Animal Origin (Disease Control) (England) Regulations 2008 to— clarify the definitions of “disease” and “restricted meat” that apply for the purposes of those Regulations, and to update the approved risk mitigating treatments for meat including casings. Article 3 amends DOSR to introduce new disease control provisions in England to prevent the spread of African swine fever, classical swine fever and swine vesicular disease in pigs. These include— new requirements as to the cleansing, disinfection and treatment of premises, vehicles and other things (new regulations 15A and 31B of, and new Schedule 4A, to DOSR); a new process for the designation of premises in England as “infected premises” and for the revocation of such designations, including specific provision for cases where African swine fever is linked to vectors (new regulations 10A and 17A of DOSR); provision restricting the movement of pig products from premises in an area in England which, after those products are produced, is declared as a disease control zone (new Schedule 1A to DOSR); updates to the process for restocking infected premises and contact premises in England with sentinel pigs set out in regulation 18 of DOSR; provision for the removal of feral pig investigation zones and feral pig control zones in England (new regulations 20A and 21A of DOSR); provision about emergency vaccination of feral pigs in England against classical swine fever and African swine fever (new regulation 22A of DOSR); specific provision for area controls where African swine fever is confirmed as present in Great Britain, including the introduction of specific control zones (new Part 6A of DOSR); updates to the measures that apply in, or in relation to things in, disease control areas in England (new regulation 24A of, and new Schedule 3A to, DOSR); additional measures that apply in relation to, and the removal of, protection zones and surveillance zones in England (new regulation 25A of DOSR); specific provision about the declaration of disease control zones where swine vesicular disease is present and related requirements (new Part 6B of DOSR); specific provision about inspections and related requirements in disease control zones in England, the tracing and disposal of pigs and pig products from disease control zones in England and general restrictions on the movement of feral pigs, domestic pigs and pig products (new Parts 6C to 6E of DOSR); updates to the requirements for vaccination of domestic pigs in England in regulations 28 to 31 of DOSR; provision about designation of premises for the collection, processing or storing of germinal products, livestock markets and approved animal by-products plants (new Part 7A of DOSR); changes to the requirements imposed on occupiers of premises of destination under regulation 33 of DOSR; updates to regulations 9, 20 and 21 of DOSR to enable the Secretary of State to impose disease control zones if disease is present in Wales or Scotland. Article 3 also makes various amendments to DOSR in consequence of the above, including updates to provisions on enforcement of the requirements of DOSR. This Order removes the requirement for the Secretary of State to carry out a review of the operation of DOSR as they apply in England (article 3(31)). Article 4 amends Commission Decision 2000/428/EC, Commission Decision 2002/EC/106 and Commission Decision 2003/422/EC to introduce provision in relation to the procedures, sampling methods and criteria for the evaluation of the results of laboratory tests in England. A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no significant impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.

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 0.90.

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