The Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014

PART 6OFFENCES AND PENALTIES

Offences

23.—(1) It is an offence for a person to contravene, or to cause or permit a person to contravene—

(a)regulation 5 (requirement for a certificate or temporary certificate);

(b)any of paragraphs 3 to 32 of Schedule 1 (additional requirements for slaughterhouses);

(c)any of paragraphs 4 to 43 of Schedule 2 (additional requirements for killing animals other than in slaughterhouses);

(d)any of paragraphs 2 to 8 of Schedule 3 (additional requirements for slaughtering animals in accordance with religious rites);

(e)paragraphs 4 or 5 of Schedule 4 (killing animals other than those to which the EU Regulation applies);

(f)a provision of the EU Regulation specified in Schedule 5, except where it is not necessary to comply with the provision by virtue of—

(i)an exemption or transitional provision specified in the EU Regulation; or

(ii)a derogation granted by the competent authority under Article 18(3) in relation to a depopulation operation; or

(g)until 8th December 2019, any of paragraphs 1 to 7 of Schedule 8, to the extent that they apply by virtue of regulation 37 (transitional provisions: slaughterhouses).

(2) It is an offence for a person to fail to comply with an enforcement notice under regulation 31.

Obstruction offences

24.  It is an offence—

(a)intentionally to obstruct any person acting in the execution of the EU Regulation or these Regulations;

(b)without reasonable cause, to fail to give to any such person any assistance or information that that person may reasonably require;

(c)to furnish to any such person any information knowing it to be false or misleading; or

(d)to fail to produce a document or record to any such person when required to do so.

Offences by bodies corporate

25.—(1) Where a body corporate is guilty of an offence under these Regulations, and that offence is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to have been attributable to any neglect on the part of—

(a)a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate; or

(b)a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity,

that person, as well as the body corporate, is guilty of the offence.

(2) In paragraph (1) “director”, in relation to a body corporate whose affairs are managed by its members, means a member of the body corporate.

Penalties

26.—(1) A person guilty of an offence under regulations 23 or 24 is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale, except where specified in paragraph (2).

(2) A person guilty of an offence under regulation 23(1)(f) in relation to a contravention of Article 3 of the EU Regulation is 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.