UK Offence Report

Offences penalties and enforcement

regulation 9(2) of The Quick-Frozen Foodstuffs Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007

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 Subject to paragraphs (3) and (4), if any person contravenes

a specified Community provision he shall be guilty of an offence and shall be 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 9(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 Quick-Frozen Foodstuffs Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007, 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
6 February 2007
In force from
1 March 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 revoke and remake with amendments the Quick-frozen Foodstuffs Regulations (NI) 1990 as amended (S.R. 1990 No. 455). In addition to continuing the implementation of the Directives specified in paragraph3 below, these Regulations now also provide for the execution and enforcement of Commission Regulation (EC) No. 37/2005 on the monitoring of temperatures in the means of transport, warehousing and storage of quick-frozen foodstuffs intended for human consumption (OJ No. L10, 13.1.2005, p.18). These Regulations- a prohibit the placing on the market of a quick-frozen foodstuff unless certain conditions are satisfied (regulation 3); b prohibit the placing on the market of a quick-frozen foodstuff intended for the ultimate consumer unless certain conditions regarding packaging are satisfied (regulation 4); c impose requirements relating to the labelling of quick-frozen foodstuffs (regulation 5); d impose requirements in relation to the equipment used in respect of quick-frozen foodstuffs intended for placing on the market for human consumption (regulation 6); e provide for additional inspections of quick-frozen foodstuffs and of the temperatures maintained in respect of them (regulation 7); f require a food operator to make records available in certain circumstances (regulation 8); g provide that a person who contravenes any of the provisions of these Regulations is guilty of an offence and create a penalty for that offence (regulation9(1)); h provide that (subject to certain exceptions: (1) compliance with transitional requirements for measuring instruments installed before 1st January2006 in the case of a contravention of the first paragraph of Article 2.2 of Commission Regulation (EC) No.37/2005 and (2) a contravention of Article 2 of Commission Regulation (EC) No. 37/2005 in respect of small cold stores in retail outlets where the air temperature is measured by an easily visible thermometer) a person who contravenes specified provisions of that Regulation is guilty of an offence and create a penalty for that offence (regulation 9(2), (3) and (4)); i provide for the execution and enforcement of these Regulations (regulation 9(5)); and j apply with modifications certain provisions of the Food Safety (NI) Order 1991 (1991 c.16) for the purposes of these Regulations (regulation 10). The Directives implemented by the S.R. 1990 No.455 that these Regulations continue to implement are— a Council Directive 89/108/EEC on the approximation of the laws of Member States relating to quick-frozen foodstuffs for human consumption; and b Commission Directive 92/2/EEC laying down the sampling procedure and the Community method of analysis for the official control of the temperatures of quick-frozen foods intended for human consumption (OJ No. L34, 11.2.92, p.30).

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”; the provision states liability on summary conviction; the provision states a penalty in older drafting
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