UK Offence Report

Offence and penalty

regulation 10 of Processed Cereal-based Foods and Baby Foods for Infants and Young Children Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003

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

10 If any person contravenes regulation

4 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 accused 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 that the food complies with that legislation; and b in the case of export to an E

What would breach regulation 10?

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 Processed Cereal-based Foods and Baby Foods for Infants and Young Children Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003, 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
12 December 2003
In force from
6 March 2005
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 provide for the continued implementation of Commission Directive 96/5/EC on processed cereal-based foods and baby foods for infants and young children, as amended by Commission Directives 1998/36/EC, 1999/39/EC and 2003/13/EC. These Regulations, which revoke and replace the Processed Cereal-based Foods and Baby Foods for Infants and Young Children Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997, as amended – a exempt from their application any baby food which is a milk intended for young children (regulation 3); b prohibit the sale of processed cereal-based foods and baby foods for infants and young children unless they comply with the manufacturing and compositional requirements in regulations 5 to 7 and the labelling requirements in regulation 8 (regulation 4); c specify the enforcement authority (regulation 9); d create an offence and prescribe a penalty; the offence provision now relates only to a contravention of the restrictions on sale in regulation 4 (regulation 10); e provide a defence in relation to exports in accordance with 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 (regulation 11); f apply certain provisions of the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 (regulation 12); and g contain a revocation provision (regulation 13). In implementation of Directive 2003/13/EC these Regulations prohibit the sale of processed cereal-based foods and baby foods for infants and young children if those foods contain pesticide residues above certain levels. Different levels are set depending on the pesticide in question (regulation 7 and Schedules 6 and 7). In implementation of the final sentence of Article 6(2) of Directive 96/5/EC as substituted by Directive 1999/39/EC, provision is made as to analytical methods (regulation 7(5)).

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