UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 12(3) of The Official Controls (Animals, Feed and Food) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 (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

3 A person is guilty of an offence if without reasonable excuse he supplies to

a relevant auditor or an inspector information which, in any material particular, is false or misleading.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
making a false or misleading statement
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

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.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

3 A person is guilty of an offence if without reasonable excuse he supplies to a relevant auditor or an inspector information which, in any material particular, is false or misleading.

What would breach regulation 12(3)?

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. On these words an offence is committed where a person supplies to a relevant auditor or an inspector information which, in any material particular, is false or misleading.
  2. Entering a figure on a form or return that is known to be wrong under the Official Controls (Animals, Feed and Food) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007.
  3. Leaving out something the form asks for, where the omission is what makes the answer misleading.
  4. Producing a document to an official that has been altered since it was issued.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
3 months

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
5 March 2007
In force from
2 April 2007
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 apply and enforce Regulation (EC) No. 882/2004 (OJ No. L191, 28.05.2004, p. 1) (“Regulation 882/2004”) in Northern Ireland in relation to animal health and welfare rules, and feed and food law excluded from the Official Feed and Food Controls Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (“the 2006 Regulations”), which also apply and enforce Regulation 882/2004. These Regulations provide for the designation of the Department as the competent authority for the purposes of Article 4.1 of Regulation 882/2004 (regulation 3). The designation relates to: a animal health and welfare rules; b feed and food law which concerns controls on animals; c feed law not listed in Schedule 3 to the 2006 Regulations; and d feed and food law concerning controls on food or feed excluded from the designations in the 2006 Regulations, namely: i organic foods, including imported organic food products; ii protected name food products and specific character food products; iii veterinary medicines residues; iv pesticides residues; v animal by-products (in relation to feed); vi the import from third countries of, and intra-Community trade in, products of animal origin; and vii beef labelling. They also relate to the prevention, control and eradication of TSEs except at slaughterhouses, cutting plants and butcher shops. The designations do not include medicated feedingstuffs and zootechnical additives, which are covered in paragraph 4 of Schedule 5 to the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2006, S.I. 2006/2407. These Regulations provide expressly for the exchange of information between the competent authority in Northern Ireland and competent authorities elsewhere in the United Kingdom, and in the European Union (regulation 4). They create independent powers for a competent authority’s auditors to conduct audits required under Article 4.6 of Regulation 882/2004 (regulation 5). The Regulations also supplement existing powers of inspectors so that they may bring Commission experts with them for purposes of the Commission’s own audits (regulation 6). There are provisions to facilitate assistance and co-operation between member States required under Title IV (Articles 34 to 40) of Regulation 882/2004 (regulations 6 and 7), in particular to enable officials of the Commission and other member States to attend with an inspector who investigates suspected breaches under the relevant legislation. Regulation 8 provides for the payment on written demand of expenses charged to a feed or food business operator under Article 40.4 of Regulation 882/2004. Part V provides for the enforcement of the Regulations, including powers of inspectors for this purpose (regulation 11). It is an offence under regulation 12 to obstruct an auditor or an inspector who brings with him representatives from the Commission or other member States, or any persons accompanying an inspector or auditor. It is also an offence under regulation 12 to provide misleading or false information to, or to fail to provide information requested by, an inspector or auditor. The penalty on summary conviction for the offences is a fine at level 5 of the standard scale (currently £5,000) or three months’ imprisonment, or both (regulation 12(4)). Time limits for prosecution are specified in regulation 13. Regulation 14 amends the definition of “relevant food law” in the 2006 Regulations by removing from that definition the regulation of TSEs except at slaughterhouses, cutting plants and butcher shops.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same 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