UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 10(2) of The Beef Bones 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

2 If any person contravenes—

a paragraph (1); or

b any other provision of these Regulations, he shall be guilty of an offence and liable—

i on summary conviction, to

a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding six months or to both; or

ii on conviction on indictment, to

a fine or imprisonment not exceeding two years or to both.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 10(2)?

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 Beef Bones 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
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
6 months

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland.

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
15 December 1997
In force from
16 December 1997
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 make provision in relation to carcases, bones, bone-in beef, other food and ingredients, which are derived from bovine animals aged over six months at slaughter. Regulation 3 prohibits the sale of bone-in beef to the ultimate consumer for human consumption and the use of bone-in beef in the preparation of any food or ingredient for sale for such purpose. Regulation 4 contains prohibitions in relation to the sale of bones and the use of bones in the preparation of food and ingredients for sale for human consumption. Regulation 5 contains prohibitions in relation to the sale of food containing ingredients consisting of or derived from bones and the sale for use and use of substances derived from bones in the preparation of food and ingredients for sale for human consumption. There is, however, a three month delay before this provision applies to food other than bones or bone-in beef. Regulation 6 contains provisions about deboning bone-in beef on food premises and regulation 7 imposes requirements in relation to the storage of bones on food premises. Regulation 8 makes provision in relation to the disposal of bones deboned in the United Kingdom. They are disposed of as if they were animal by-products referred to in Part II of Schedule 1 to the Animal By-Products Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1993. Regulation 9 requires the occupier of food premises to keep records on the premises relating to any bones removed from bone-in beef, used or stored there. These records must contain sufficient information to ensure that the origin of bones removed from bone-in beef used or stored at the premises, and any commercial operations previously carried out in relation to the bones (whether or not at those premises and whether or not in the United Kingdom), can be clearly traced and identified by an authorised officer. Regulation 10 provides offences and penalties and regulation 11 applies provisions of the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 for the purposes of the Regulations. Regulation 12 makes provision for the enforcement of the Regulations. These Regulations have been notified in draft to the European Commission as a technical standard in accordance with Article 8 of Council Directive 83/189/EEC, (as last amended by Directive 94/10/EC) laying down the procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations.

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