UK Offence Report

Amendments to the Food (Pistachios from Iran) (Emergency Control) (Wales) (No.2) Regulations 2003

regulation 2(5) of The Food (Pistachios from Iran) (Emergency Control) (Wales) (No.2) (Amendment) Regulations 2005

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

9 Any person who breaches the terms of

a notice served under paragraph (1) or (2) is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

5 on the standard scale or to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding three months. .

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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(5)?

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 a person breaches the terms of a notice served under paragraph (1) or (2).
  2. Moving the goods across the border under the Food (Pistachios from Iran) (Emergency Control) (Wales) (No.2) (Amendment) Regulations 2005 without the licence the instrument requires.
  3. Holding a licence for one consignment and using it for another.
  4. Sending goods in transit through the United Kingdom, where the provision catches transit as well as import and export.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
3 months

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (2005-02-10); 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
8 February 2005
In force from
10 February 2005
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.

These Regulations further amend the Food (Pistachios from Iran) (Emergency Control) (Wales) (No.2) Regulations 2003 (S.I. 2003/2288, as amended by S.I. 2004/245 and S.I. 2004/1804). Those Regulations implemented Commission Decision 97/830/EC repealing Commission Decision 97/613/EC and imposing special conditions on the import of pistachios and certain products derived from pistachios originating in, or consigned from Iran (OJ No. L343, 13.12.97, p.30) as last amended by Commission Decision 2004/429/EC (OJ No. L154, 30.04.2004, p.20). The amendments made by these Regulations implement the Commission Decision 2005/85/EC imposing special conditions on the import of pistachios and certain products derived from pistachios originating in, or consigned from Iran (OJ No. L30, 3.2.2005, p.12), “the new Decision”. The new Decision repealed Commission Decision 97/830/EC. The significant differences between the new Decision and Commission Decision 97/830/EC are that — Article 1.1 of the new Decision provides that the health certificate required to accompany a consignment of “Iranian pistachios” (defined in regulation 2(1) of S.I. 2003/2288) is to be valid for import carried out no more than 4 months after the issue date of the health certificate; and Article 3 of the new Decision provides that certain costs relating to the import controls on Iranian pistachios imposed by the Decision and the costs relating to official measures taken against non-compliant consignments of Iranian pistachios are to be borne by the person responsible for the consignment. The change described in paragraph 2(a) above is effected by substituting a definition of the new Decision for the definition of Commission Decision 97/830/EC in regulation 2(1) of S.I. 2003/2288 and making consequential changes to regulations 3(1) and 4(4) of that instrument (regulation 2(2)(a), (3) and (4)). The change described in paragraph 2(b) above is effected by amending regulations 3(1) and 6(1) of S.I. 2003/2288 to make it a condition of import that the costs relating to import controls have been met and a condition of re-dispatch of non-compliant consignments that the costs relating to official measures taken against them have been met (regulation 2(3) and (5)). These Regulations insert a revised definition of Commission Directive 98/53/EC into regulation 2(1) of S.I. 2003/2288 to reflect the amendments made to that Directive (regulation 2(2)(b)). These Regulations insert a new paragraph (2) into regulation 6 of S.I. 2003/2288, which provides that illegal imports of Iranian pistachios may be destroyed if they are not re-dispatched within the period specified in a notice requiring re-dispatch (regulation 2(5)). No regulatory appraisal has been prepared in relation to 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