UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 8(1) of Imported Food Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997 (revoked)

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

1 If any person contravenes regulation 4, 6(1) or (4) or 7(4), he shall be guilty of an offence against these Regulations.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

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 states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

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

What would breach regulation 8(1)?

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 Imported Food 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
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

'to a fine' with no stated maximum.

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
14 November 1997
In force from
1 January 1998
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 contain measures relating to the control of certain types of food imported into Northern Ireland which are not in free circulation within the European Community. They replace the general provisions of the Imported Food Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1991 with a new set of provisions for all food other than exempt products of animal origin. The Regulations also contain amendments to the Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995 which implement Commission Directive 96/3/EC which grants a derogation from certain provisions of Council Directive 93/43/EEC on the hygiene of foodstuffs (O.J. No. L.175, 19.7.93, p. 1). Regulation 2 is an interpretation provision. Regulation 3 explains the scope of the Regulations. The Regulations apply to all imported food other than exempt products of animal origin — a term which is defined with reference to the list of exempt products in Schedule 1 to the Regulations — if that food is not in free circulation within the European Community or was not in free circulation in the European Community when it first arrived in the British Islands. Regulation 3(3) explains who may be considered an importer for the purposes of these Regulations. Regulation 4 contains the prohibition on importation of food which comes within the scope of these Regulations and fails to comply with food safety requirements or is unsound or unwholesome. Regulation 5 provides for enforcement of the Regulations, and includes provisions relating to deferred examinations. Regulation 6 deals with the procedures relating to examination of imported food which comes within the scope of the Regulations. It includes a requirement that the importer must provide all such facilities as the authorised officer may reasonably require (regulation 6(1)), and a detention notice procedure where the authorised officer considers that he should procure a sample of the importer’s food (regulation 6(2) to (6)). Regulation 7(1) to (4) contains a notice procedure for allowing the re-export of food which appears to fail to comply with regulation 4 or for enabling the district council to permit the import of such food for purposes other than human consumption. Alternatively, the district council may seek to have such food destroyed in accordance with established Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 procedures (regulation 7(5) and (6)). Regulation 8 deals with offences and penalties, and regulation 9 deals with the application, in some cases with modifications, of certain provisions of the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991. Regulation 10 and Schedule 2 cover amendments to the Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995. The amendments implement a corrigendum (O.J. No. L208, 5.9.95, p. 20) to paragraph 2(2) of Chapter IV of the Annex to Council Directive 93/43/EEC on the hygiene of foodstuffs. As indicated above, Commission Directive 96/3/EC, which contains derogations from paragraph 2(2) of Chapter IV of the Annex to Council Directive 93/43/EEC, is also implemented by virtue of these Regulations. The derogations relate to the transportation in sea-going vessels of liquid oils and fats, and the implemented provisions of Commission Directive 96/3/EC also contain new documentary requirements which have to be met by the captains of such vessels. Regulation 11 is a revocations provision.

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