UK Offence Report

Amendment of the Natural Mineral Water, Spring Water and Bottled Drinking Water Regulations (Northern…

regulation 7 of The Natural Mineral Water, Spring Water and Bottled Drinking Water (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010 (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

7 For regulation 20 (offences and penalties) there is substituted— Offences and penalties 20

1 A person is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

5 on the standard scale if that person —

a contravenes regulation 5, 6(1), 7(1), (3) or (4), 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,

15 or 22(3);

b fails to comply with any provision of Regulation 115/2010 specified in paragraph (2); or

c carries out an authorised activated alumina treatment that has

a disinfectant action.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 7?

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 (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010, 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
8 March 2010
In force from
9 April 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 amend the Natural Mineral Water, Spring Water and Bottled Drinking Water Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 (S.R. 2007 No. 420, as already amended). These Regulations— a provide for the execution and enforcement of Commission Regulation (EU) No. 115/2010 laying down the conditions for use of activated alumina for the removal of fluoride from natural mineral waters and spring waters (OJ No. L 37, 10.2.2010, p.13); and b implement, Article 7.1 to 3 and 6 of Council Directive 98/83/EC relating to the quality of water intended for human consumption (OJ No. L330, 3.11.98, p.32). These Regulations amend the Natural Mineral Water, Spring Water and Bottled Drinking Water Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 by— a inserting definitions of “authorised activated alumina treatment” and “Regulation 115/2010” into regulation 2(1) (interpretation) (regulation 3); b substituting a revised version of regulation 6(1) (treatment and additions for natural mineral water) in order to add authorised activated alumina treatments to the list of treatments to which natural mineral water in its state at source may lawfully be subjected (regulation 4); c adding a paragraph to regulation 10 (bottling of spring water and exploitation of spring water springs) prohibiting the bottling of water which has been treated with activated alumina for removal of fluoride in a bottle marked or labelled “spring water” unless the treatment is an authorised activated alumina treatment (regulation 5); d substituting for regulation 16(3) (enforcement) new paragraphs (3) to (6) which— i require district councils to carry out periodic checks on authorised activated alumina treatments which they have authorised in accordance with new Schedule 1A, to ensure that the requirements of that Schedule continue to be satisfied, ii require district councils to carry out regular monitoring of the quality of bottled drinking water and spring water for specified matters, iii in order to comply with that requirement, require district councils to— aa carry out regular check monitoring in relation to the parameters, properties, elements, substances and organisms set out in new Schedule 10, and bb carry out audit monitoring in relation to any parameter and the properties, elements, substances and organisms set out in new Schedule 9. iv for the purposes of that requirement, require district councils to carry out sampling and analysis in accordance with the relevant minimum frequencies set out in new Schedule 11, v require district councils to carry out additional monitoring in relation to any property, element, substance or organism which is neither a parameter nor a property, element, substance or organism set out in new Schedule 9 if they have reason to suspect that it may be present in the water concerned in an amount or number which constitutes a potential danger to human health, and vi require the checks and monitoring referred to in divisions (ii) to (v) of this sub-paragraph to be carried out using samples representative of the quality of the water concerned consumed throughout the year in which the samples are taken (regulation6); e substituting a revised regulation 20 (offences and penalties) in order to make it an offence to fail to comply with specified provisions of Commission Regulation (EU) No. 115/2010 or to carry out an authorised activated alumina treatment that has a disinfectant action (regulation 7); and f insert new Schedules 1A, 9, 10 and 11 (regulations 8 and 9).

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