UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 17 of Natural Mineral Water, Spring Water and Bottled Drinking Water Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999

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

17 A person shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

5 on the standard scale if he contravenes regulation 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10(1) or (5), 11(1) or (3),

12 or 19(3).

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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

gulations, other than in relation to natural mineral water, it shall be a defence for the person charged to prove— a that the water in respect of which the offence was alleged to have been committed was intended for export to a country which has legislation analogous to these Regulations and that it complies with that legislation; and b if the water was intended for expo

What would breach regulation 17?

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 Natural Mineral Water, Spring Water and Bottled Drinking Water Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999, 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
30 June 1999
In force from
16 August 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 Council Directive 80/777/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the member States relating to the exploitation and marketing of natural mineral waters (O.J. No. L229, 30.8.80, p. 1) as amended by Directive 96/70/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (O.J. No. L229, 23.11.96, p. 26). These Regulations also implement Council Directive 80/778/EEC (O.J. No. L229, 30.8.80, p.11) relating to the quality of water intended for human consumption, in relation to other drinking water which is bottled or sold in a bottle (as defined in regulation 2). These Regulations revoke the Natural Mineral Waters Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1985 (S.R. 1985 No. 120) and the Drinking Waters in Containers Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1994 (S.R. 1994 No. 185), which previously implemented Directives 80/777/EEC and 80/778/EEC. These Regulations also cover production of spring waters, which was not covered by S.R. 1985 No. 120 insofar as they were not classifiable as natural mineral waters. These Regulations— a provide specified exemptions (regulation 3); b prescribe the conditions for recognition of natural mineral water (regulation 4); c prohibit the sale, as natural mineral water, of water which is not natural mineral water (regulation 5); d prescribe the conditions for the exploitation of natural mineral water springs and the bottling of water therefrom and prohibit the sale of water extracted from them but not exploited or bottled in accordance with those conditions (regulation 6); e prohibit the subjecting of natural mineral water to any treatment or addition other than those specified and prohibit the sale of natural mineral water which has been subjected to any treatment or addition other than one so specified (regulation 7); f prohibit the bottling, and sale, of natural mineral water which does not comply with specified requirements as to colony counts or which contains any organoleptic defect (regulation 8); g prohibit the bottling, and sale, of natural mineral water in other than a specified type of container (regulation 9); h impose labelling requirements on natural mineral water and prohibit the sale thereof unless those requirements are met (regulation 10); i prohibit the labelling of water as spring water, or the sale of water so labelled, unless specified requirements are met (regulation 11); j prohibit the bottling or sale of bottled drinking water which does not satisfy specified requirements and the use of specified labelling (regulation 12 and Schedule 2); k make provision for enforcement and analysis (regulations 13 to 16); l provide for offences and prescribe penalties (regulation 17); m provide specific defences in relation to exports, imports and water placed on the market or labelled before the Regulations come into operation (regulation 18); n apply provisions of the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 (including the defence of due diligence) and the Food Labelling Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 (regulation 19); and o amend and revoke other legislation (regulations 20 and 21 and Schedule 4).

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