UK Offence Report

Penalties

regulation 7(1) of The Foot-and-Mouth Disease (Prohibition of Vaccination) (Wales) Regulations 2001

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 A person contravening any provision of these Regulations shall be 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
breaching the provision
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 7(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. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Foot-and-Mouth Disease (Prohibition of Vaccination) (Wales) Regulations 2001.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
3 months
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (2001-07-03); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean an unlimited fine.

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
2 July 2001
In force from
3 July 2001
Extent
Not stated

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.

(The Note is not part of the Regulations) These Regulations implement the requirement on Member States in Article 13 of Council Directive 85/511/EEC introducing Community measures for the control of foot-and-mouth disease (O.J. L315, 26/11/1985 p. 11-18) (as amended, in particular by Council Directive 90/423/EEC of 26 June 1990 (O.J. L224, 18/08/1990 p.13-18) to ensure that the use of foot-and-mouth vaccines is prohibited, except where the use of such vaccine is expressly authorised by decision of the European Commission. These Regulations prohibit vaccination against foot-and-mouth disease in Wales except under the authority of a licence issued by the National Assembly for Wales (regulation 3(1)). Regulation 3(2) provides an exemption for vaccination carried out by persons licensed to handle foot-and-mouth disease virus by the National Assembly for Wales under the Specified Animal Pathogens Order 1998. Breach of the Regulations is an offence (regulation 7). A person guilty of an offence is liable— a on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to imprisonment not exceeding three months or to both; b on conviction on indictment, to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both. Persons guilty of intentionally obstructing or failing to assist persons acting in execution of the Regulations are only liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or to imprisonment not exceeding 3 months or to both. The Regulations make provision for offences by bodies corporate (regulation 6). The Regulations are enforced by the local authority or the National Assembly for Wales (regulation 8). A Regulatory Appraisal has not been prepared for these Regulations.

Read the full note and every offence in this 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