UK Offence Report

Community marketing rules offences

regulation 15(8) of The Marketing of Fresh Horticulture Produce Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010

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

8 A person is guilty of an offence if they export or import any consignment of horticultural produce to or from any place outside the European Community without

a document, label or notice required by Community marketing rules to accompany that horticultural produce.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
importing or exporting without authority
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

20 1 It is a defence for a person charged(“A”) with an offence under these Regulations, except for the offences in regulation18 (obstruction), to prove that their actions were carried out with lawful authority or that they took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid committing the offence. 2 WhereA wishes to rely on the defence in paragraph(1), Amust serve on the prosecutor a wri

What would breach regulation 15(8)?

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. Moving the goods across the border under the Marketing of Fresh Horticulture Produce Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010 without the licence the instrument requires.
  2. Holding a licence for one consignment and using it for another.
  3. Sending goods in transit through the United Kingdom, where the provision catches transit as well as import and export.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

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
3 June 2010
In force from
25 June 2010
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 a new statutory framework for the enforcement of the Community marketing rules in the fresh fruit and vegetable sector provided for in Articles113 and 113a of Council Regulation (EC) No1234/2007 (O.J. No. L299, 16.11.2007, p.1) establishing a common organisation of agricultural markets and on specific provisions for certain agricultural products (Single CMO Regulation), and contained in TitleII of Commission Regulation (EC) No.1580/2007 (O.J. No. L350, 31.12.2007, p.1) laying down implementing rules of Council Regulations (EC) No.2200/96, (EC) No.2201/96 and (EC) No.1182/2007 in the fruit and vegetable sector. In particular, they implement the revisions made to the Community marketing rules introduced by Commission Regulation (EC) No.1221/2008 (O.J. No. L336, 13.12.2008, p.1) amending Regulation (EC) No.1580/2007 laying down implementing rules of Council Regulations (EC) No.2200/96, (EC) No.2201/96 and (EC) No.1182/2007 in the fruit and vegetable sector as regards marketing standards. These Regulations revoke the Grading of Horticultural Produce (Amendment) Regulations 1973 (S.R.1973 No. 19). These Regulations disapply the Horticulture Act (Northern Ireland) 1966, the Agriculture and Horticulture Act 1964 (c.28) and the Horticultural Produce Act 1986 (c.20) which modifies the 1964 Act and the Agricultural Marketing Act 1958 (c.47) from the Community marketing rules in the fresh fruit and vegetable sector. These Regulations make the failure to comply with Article113a(3) of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1234/2007, and the provisions of Commission Regulation (EC) No.1580/2007 mentioned in the Schedule, an offence. They contain some additional offences necessary for the effective enforcement of the Community marketing rules (Regulation16 and Schedule2). They exercise the derogation in Article3(3) of Commission Regulation (EC) No.1580/2007 (Regulation16(2)). This derogation exempts products presented for retail sale to consumers for their personal use from the specific marketing standards provided they are labelled “product intended for processing”, or with other equivalent wording. Regulation14 provides that powers in the Regulations cannot be exercised on premises used wholly as a dwelling house. The Regulations confer powers of entry (Regulation4) and other powers (Regulation5), including seizure powers which require authorised officers to fulfil certain duties in relation to any items seized. They contain powers to affix labels indicating non compliance with the Community marketing rules (regulations6, 7 and 8) and at the same time to serve notice containing detailed reasons for the non compliance. They confer power to control the movement of horticultural produce (regulation10) and the power to affix a stop notice label warning of its exercise (regulation12). There is provision for giving consent to the movement of controlled horticultural produce when certain conditions are met (regulation13). There are provisions on offences relating to the unlawful movement of controlled horticultural produce, to unlawfully removing stop notice labels and relating to failure to comply with an undertaking given in relation to controlled horticultural produce (regulation15). These Regulations make obstruction an offence (regulation18). They also contain provisions relating to the commission of an offence due to the fault of another person (regulation19). They provide for defences of acting with lawful authority or exercising due diligence and taking reasonable precautions (regulation20), and for the commission of offences by bodies corporate (regulation21). They provide for penalties for offences (regulation22).

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

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