Legal background
- The majority of the relevant legal background is explained in the policy background section of these Notes. Two additional legal issues are raised below, one in relation to the current drafting of section 32(1) of the Animal Welfare Act 2006, and the second in relation to the requirement to change the mode of trial.
- The current drafting of section 32(1) of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 lists the maximum penalty as imprisonment for a term not exceeding 51 weeks or a fine, as opposed to the maximum imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months as discussed above. This discrepancy is explained by section 32(5) of the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Section 32(5) provides that in relation to an offence committed before the commencement of section 281(5) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, the reference in section 32(1)(a) to 51 weeks is to be read as a reference to six months. As at the date of the publication of the Act, section 281(5) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 has not been commenced. The maximum imprisonment term for offences under section 32(1) of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 therefore remains six months.
- Under section 78 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 magistrates' courts do not have the power to impose penalties greater than six months. As a result of increasing the maximum penalty available for the offences under section 32(1) of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 to a period of five years it is necessary for the Act to make these offences triable either way.
