UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 6 of Foods Intended for Use in Energy Restricted Diets for Weight Reduction Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997

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

6 If any person contravenes regulation 2, 3, 4 or 5 he shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
contravening a requirement of the instrument
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

1 In any proceedings for an offence under these Regulations it shall be a defence for the person charged to prove— a that the food 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 it complies with that legislation; and b that the legislation complies with the pr

What would breach regulation 6?

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 the thing the provision prohibits under the Foods Intended for Use in Energy Restricted Diets for Weight Reduction Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997, whatever the reason for doing it.
  2. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

in Northern Ireland a reference to a level is construed as referring to the standard scale as it currently stands (Fines and Penalties (NI) Order 1984 art.5(3)), not as it stood when the instrument was made.

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
10 October 1997
In force from
31 March 1999
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 Commission Directive 96/8/EC on food intended for use in energy-restricted diets for weight reduction. The Regulations— a prohibit the sale, under any name other than either of those specified, of food intended for use in energy-restricted diets for weight reduction which complies with the compositional requirements in Schedule 1 (“relevant food”) (regulation 2(1)); b prohibit the sale of any food under either specified name unless it is relevant food (regulation 2(2)); c prohibit the sale of relevant food unless labelled with specified particulars (regulation 3); d prohibit the sale of relevant food if reference is made in the labelling, advertising or presentation to the rate or amount of weight loss which may result from its use or to a reduction in the sense of hunger or an increase in the sense of satiety (regulation 4); e prohibit the sale of relevant food intended as a replacement for the whole of the daily diet unless all the components are contained in the same package (regulation 5); f create offences and prescribe penalties (regulation 6); g specify the enforcement authority (regulation 7); h provide a defence in relation to exports in accordance with Articles 2 and 3 of, as read with the ninth recital to, Council Directive 89/397/EEC (O.J. No. L186, 30.6.89, p. 23) on the official control of foodstuffs (regulation 8); i apply various articles of the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 including those relating to enforcement and defences (regulation 9).

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 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person is “guilty of an offence”
Confidence
0.92 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