UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Foot-and-Mouth Disease (Wales) Order 2006

the instrument as a whole of The Foot-and-Mouth Disease (Wales) Order 2006

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

Contravening this instrument is an offence under section

73 of the Animal Health Act 1981. The instrument itself contains no offence-creating words.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Not determined

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.

Classifier’s reasoning: contravention offences of this kind are strict as to the breach; the fault position is governed by the parent Act and was not read from it.

What would breach the instrument as a whole?

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 (Wales) Order 2006.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Set by another provision — the instrument states the penalty by reference to an Act or to another regulation
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

The instrument does not state a penalty itself. It sets one by reference to section 73 of the Animal Health Act 1981.

the penalty is in the parent Act, not in this instrument.

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
31 January 2006
In force from
1 February 2006
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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order transposes, in part, Council Directive 2003/85/EC of the 29 September 2003 on Community measures for the control of foot and mouth disease (OJ No. L306, 22.11.2003, p.1) (“the Directive”). It revokes and replaces the Foot and Mouth Disease Order 1983 as amended (S.I. 1983 / 1950) (“the 1983 Order”). The Directive sets out the measures to be adopted in the event of a suspected or confirmed outbreak of foot and mouth disease (“the disease”). It provides for emergency vaccination as a disease control strategy alongside the slaughter susceptible animals on infected premises and those animals identified as dangerous contacts. The Directive introduces a number of “zones” of different levels of disease control (such as protection, surveillance and vaccination) where disease is either suspected, present or where vaccination is used. The Directive provides for food chain controls on fresh meat and meat products from animals originating or produced in protection and surveillance zones, controls on animal movements in certain zones (except to slaughter) and controls on the collection and sampling of milk for hygiene purposes. The Directive is transposed in relation to Wales, by three separate pieces of legislation. The majority of its provisions are transposed by this Order, however certain requirements pertaining to the compulsory slaughter of animals are transposed by the Animal Health Act 1981 (Amendment) Regulations 2005 (S.I. 2005/3475) with the requirements pertaining to vaccination being transposed by the Foot and Mouth Disease (Control of Vaccination) (Wales) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/180 (W.31). The principal disease control and eradication provisions introduced by this Order relate to the following: i Rules pertaining to common and unenclosed land (Article 4); ii Format, content extent and publication of licences, notices, certificates and declarations made under the Order (Articles 5, 6 and 7); iii Requirements as to disinfection carried out under the Order (Article 8) iv Duties on persons to notify the presence, or suspicion, of the disease (Articles 9, 10 and 11); v Veterinary inquiry as to existence of disease and declaration of suspect, infected or contact premises (Articles 12 and 14); vi Declaration of separate production units (Article 13); vii Maintenance of measures in respect of premises (Article 15); viii Temporary Control Zones and Supplementary Movement Control Zones: Declaration as to existence of, and measures applicable within (Articles 16 to 20); ix Tracing of Products originating on infected premises (Article 21); x Slaughter of animals: Notices, clinical examination, place of, controls of carcases and materials, cleansing and disinfection and restocking (Articles 22-30); xi Declaration of, measures applicable within, and termination of Protection and Surveillance Zones (Articles 31 to 37); xii Declaration of, and measures applicable within, Restricted Zones and Wild Animal Infected Zones (Articles 38 to 41); xiii Requirements pertaining to licensed movements of susceptible animals (Article 42); xiv Premises keeping animals of special value (Article 43); xv Duty of local authorities to erect signs (Article 44); xvi Cleansing, disinfection and inspection of vehicles (Article 45 and 46); xvii Marks applied to carcases, animal products and other things under the Order (Article 47); xviii Change of occupation of premises under restriction (Article 48); xix Enforcement and execution of Order, including provision of assistance, information and records, compliance with directions and notices, powers of inspectors and offences (Articles 49 to 59); xx Amendments and revocations (Articles 60 to 63); xxi Detailed rules on cleansing and disinfection (Schedule 1); xxii Measures applicable to premises on suspicion or confirmation of disease there, including records keeping, signs, movements of animals, persons, vehicles and other things and disinfection (Schedule 2); xxiii Criteria for confirming disease (Schedule 3); xxiv Detailed measures applicable in Protection and Surveillance Zones (Schedule 4); xxv Treatments to ensure the destruction of the disease virus for both products of animal origin (including fresh meat, milk and milk products) and products not of animal origin (Schedule 5); xxvi Measures applicable to Restricted Zones and Wild Animal Infected Zones (Schedules 6 and 7); xxvii Restocking of Premises (Schedule 8); xxviii Revocations (Schedule 9) A regulatory appraisal has been prepared in respect of this Order and is available for inspection at the Office of the Chief Veterinary Officer, National Assembly for Wales, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ.

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 0.55.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.55 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