UK Offence Report

Condemnation of food

regulation 8 of Colours in Food Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

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

8 Where any food is certified by

a food analyst as being food which it is an offence against these Regulations to sell, that food may be treated for the purposes of Article

8 of the Order (under which food may be seized and destroyed on the order of

a justice of the peace) as failing to comply with food safety requirements, and Article 7(2) of the Order shall apply for the purposes of these Regulations as it applies for the purposes of the Order.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
selling or supplying something the instrument restricts
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
Legal burden on the defendant

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.

The provision gives a defence the defendant must prove, on the balance of probabilities. A legal burden of that kind can be read down to a merely evidential one under section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 where placing it on the defendant would be disproportionate (R v Lambert [2001] UKHL 37; Sheldrake v DPP [2004] UKHL 43).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

The defence, as drafted

0 In any proceedings for an offence under these Regulations it shall be a defence for the person charged to prove— a that the food or, as the case may be, the colour in respect of which the offence is alleged to have been committed was intended for export to a country which has legislation analogous to these Regulations and that such food or colour complies with that leg

What would breach regulation 8?

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. Selling the goods under the Colours in Food Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 where the instrument prohibits the sale outright.
  2. Supplying without carrying out a check the instrument requires first, even where the sale would otherwise be lawful.
  3. Offering for sale counts as well as selling: displaying stock is enough where the provision reaches an offer.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

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
28 February 1996
In force from
22 April 1996
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 Regulations.) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations implement European Parliament and Council Directive 94/36/EC (O.J. No. L237, 10.9.94, p. 13) on colours for use in foodstuffs (which has to be read with Council Directive 89/107/EEC (O.J. No. L40, 11.2.89, p. 27) on the approximation of the laws of the member States concerning food additives authorised for use in foodstuffs intended for human consumption) and Commission Directive 95/45/EC (O.J. No. L226, 22.9.95, p. 1) laying down specific criteria of purity concerning the colours for use in foodstuffs. The principal provisions of the Regulations— 1 prohibit the use of any colour in or on any food other than a permitted colour (regulation 3(1)); 2 prohibit the use of any permitted colour in or on any food, otherwise than in accordance with the Regulations (regulation 3(2), (3) and (4)); 3 prohibit the use of any colour other than certain permitted colours for the health marking etc. of certain meat and meat products (regulation 4); 4 prohibit the use of any colour on eggshells other than a permitted colour (regulation 5); 5 prohibit the sale for use in or on any food of any colour other than a permitted colour (regulation 7(1)); only certain permitted colours may be sold directly to consumers (regulation 7(2) and (3)); 6 prohibit the sale of any food containing any added colour other than a permitted colour used in or on it in accordance with the Regulations (regulation 7(4)). The Regulations also— a make provision in relation to compound foods (regulation 6); b make provision in relation to the condemnation of food (regulation 8); c create offences, prescribe a penalty and provide for the enforcement of the Regulations (regulation 9); d provide a defence in relation to exports, in implementation of Articles 2 and 3 of Council Directive 89/397/EEC (O.J. No. L186, 30.6.89, p. 23) on the official control of foodstuffs, as read with the ninth recital to that Directive (regulation 10); e incorporate specified provisions of the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 (regulation 11); f revoke the Regulations and order specified in Schedule 6 to the extent specified in that Schedule, and make consequential amendments (regulation 12); g contain a transitional provision and exemption (regulation 13).

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same 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 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 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