UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Exotic Disease (Application and Amendment of Enactments) (Wales) Order 2024

the instrument as a whole of The Exotic Disease (Application and Amendment of Enactments) (Wales) Order 2024

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 Exotic Disease (Application and Amendment of Enactments) (Wales) Order 2024.

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
19 September 2024
In force from
23 September 2024
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 applies in relation to Wales only. Article 2 extends the definition of “disease” in the Animal Health Act 1981 to include bluetongue, transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, African swine fever and epizootic haemorrhagic disease. Article 3 amends the Movement of Animals (Restrictions) (Wales) Order 2003 (S.I 2003/399 (W.56)) to reinsert a provision allowing the Welsh Ministers to declare an area to be an infected area. It provides for the Order to be enforced by the local authority except where otherwise stated or where the Welsh Ministers direct that the Order is to be enforced by the Welsh Ministers in relation to cases of a particular description or particular cases. Article 4 amends the Bluetongue (Wales) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/1090 (W.116)) to add and clarify certain definitions; to permit amendment, suspension or revocation of authorisations, licences, notices or designations under these Regulations without notice; to provide for premises which straddle a restricted zone and a temporary control zone to be treated as being entirely within a temporary control zone; to extend the prohibition on the movement of animals in a control zone to include prohibiting the movement of germinal products in that zone except in accordance with a licence; to establish further disease control measures in the event of suspicion or confirmation of bluetongue, including power for a veterinary inspector to serve a notice prohibiting the movement of animals or germinal products onto or from premises where bluetongue is suspected or confirmed, except in accordance with a licence (which may be subject to conditions); to provide a power to declare a restricted zone where bluetongue is confirmed but not circulating; to provide a power to declare a bluetongue prevention zone as a precautionary measure where necessary to reduce the risk of an incursion of bluetongue virus into any part of Wales, and to provide a power to designate premises for the purpose of collecting, processing, handling or storing germinal products. Article 5 amends the Bluetongue (Wales) (Compensation) Order 2007 (S.I. 2007/3010 (W.261) by removing a reference to a provision which is revoked. Article 6 revokes the Bluetongue (No. 2) (Wales) Order 2007 (S.I. 2007/3309 (W. 294)) so far as not previously revoked by the Bluetongue (Wales) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/1090 (W.116)), its sole remaining provision being consolidated into those Regulations by article 4 of this Order. The Welsh Ministers’ Code of Practice on the carrying out of Regulatory Impact Assessments was considered in relation to this Order. As a result, it was not considered necessary to carry out a regulatory impact assessment as to the likely costs and benefits of complying with this Order.

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