He wasn’t aware he even needed one, and once he was informed he immediately fessed up about it publicly and referred himself to be investigated.
The sentencing guidelines state that the normal punishment for a first offence of this violation is a warning, which is probably what he’ll receive.
And Lammy is not the government minister who oversees fishing permits. The government does a lot of things, it’s frankly unreasonable to expect every minister to be experts in all areas of the law and everything the government oversees.
I agree with HumanPenguin but your stance is a bit silly.
You don’t need to be an expert to know you need a licence, everyone else and their dog is expected to know to get one. There’s usually multiple signs around rivers and lakes stating a licence is required. Ignorance of the law is never accepted as an excuse by councils, police, or courts.
It sounds like he’s done right and remedied it, but Lammy doesn’t work alone. He has a team of people, and not one of them organised a licence. It’s either a case of incompetence or a case of thinking he’s above the rules and got caught. Both are bad optics for an already struggling government.
You’re not a government minister setting laws and determining who can be jailed for what. The hypocrisy is the issue, not how minor the infraction.
If any attempt to keep his error a secret. You may have a point.
But he was very open about the error. An easy error that many make every year. And fixed by back dating the new licence.
So no. A minister accepting he has the same requirements to address his errors as any other law abiding citizen. Really is not a negative.
PS yes it’s been decades since I fished. But historically yes EA inspectors etc allowed expired licence owners found fishing to renew this way.
Seems a bit of an over the top response.
He wasn’t aware he even needed one, and once he was informed he immediately fessed up about it publicly and referred himself to be investigated.
The sentencing guidelines state that the normal punishment for a first offence of this violation is a warning, which is probably what he’ll receive.
And Lammy is not the government minister who oversees fishing permits. The government does a lot of things, it’s frankly unreasonable to expect every minister to be experts in all areas of the law and everything the government oversees.
I agree with HumanPenguin but your stance is a bit silly.
You don’t need to be an expert to know you need a licence, everyone else and their dog is expected to know to get one. There’s usually multiple signs around rivers and lakes stating a licence is required. Ignorance of the law is never accepted as an excuse by councils, police, or courts.
It sounds like he’s done right and remedied it, but Lammy doesn’t work alone. He has a team of people, and not one of them organised a licence. It’s either a case of incompetence or a case of thinking he’s above the rules and got caught. Both are bad optics for an already struggling government.
Don’t they look tired?