UK Offence Report

1 A person is guilty of an offence if the person fails to comply with— a any provision of FIC specified in…

regulation 10(1) of The Food Information Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014

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

1 A person is guilty of an offence if the person fails to comply with—

a any provision of FIC specified in paragraph (2), as read with Articles 1(3) and

6 and the first subparagraph of Article 54(1), or

b regulation 5(5).

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to do something the instrument requires
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 10(1)?

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 fails to comply with— a any provision of FIC specified in paragraph (2), as read with Articles 1(3) and 6 and the first subparagraph of Article 54(1), or b regulation 5(5).
  2. Not doing what the provision requires under the Food Information Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014, by the time it requires it to be done.
  3. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

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
21 August 2014
In force from
Not determined
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 make provision to enforce certain provisions of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the provision of food information to consumers, amending Regulations (EC) No 1924/2006 and (EC) No 1925/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and repealing Commission Directive 87/250/EEC, Council Directive 90/496/EEC, Commission Directive 1999/10/EC, Directive 2000/13/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, Commission Directives 2002/67/EC and 2008/5/EC and Commission Regulation (EC) No 608/2004 (OJ No L 304, 22.11.2011, p 18) (“FIC”). They also implement certain provisions of Article 6 of Directive 1999/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the approximation of the laws of the Member States concerning foods and food ingredients treated with ionising radiation (OJ No L 66, 13.3.1999, p 16) and the second paragraph of subparagraph 1 of Article 3 of Directive 2000/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council relating to cocoa and chocolate products intended for human consumption (OJ No L 197, 3.8.2000, p 19). Regulation 3 contains a derogation relating to milk or milk products presented in a glass bottle intended for reuse. Regulation 4 and Schedule 2 provide a derogation relating to the use of a minced meat designation for minced meat that does not comply with the requirements laid down in Annex VI, Part B, point 1 to FIC. Regulation 5 enables particulars relating to an allergenic substance or product in a non-prepacked food to be made available (subject to the provisions of the regulation) using any means that a food business operator chooses. The required particulars must be made available under FIC but can be made available using the means provided for in FIC or in accordance with the provisions of regulation 5. Regulation 6 requires the name of the food to be provided in the case of certain non-prepacked foods and foods prepacked for direct sale. Regulation 7 requires a quantitative indication of the meat content to be given in the case of certain products. Those particulars must be given in one of the ways specified in regulations 6(4) (in the case of the name of the food) and 7(5) (in the case of the meat content indication). The provisions of regulations 6(4) and 7(5) do not apply to an offer for sale made by means of distance communication. Article 14(2) of FIC (as read with other relevant provisions of FIC) applies in the case of such an offer. Regulation 8 requires certain information to be provided when irradiated food products or food products containing an irradiated ingredient are sold in bulk and when irradiated ingredients are used in certain prepacked food products. Regulation 9 imposes an obligation on district councils to enforce the Regulations. Regulation 10 makes it an offence to fail to comply with specified provisions of FIC and the allergens related requirement in regulation 5(5). Regulation 11 provides for the punishment of that offence. Regulation 12 and Schedule 4 apply certain provisions of the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 (1991 N.I. 7) to the Regulations with modifications. This includes the application (with modifications) of Article 9(1), enabling an improvement notice to be served to require compliance with specified provisions of FIC and specified provisions of regulations 5 and 8. The provisions, as applied, make the failure to comply with an improvement notice an offence. Regulation 13 and entry 1 of the table in Part 1 of Schedule 6 revoke most of the Food Labelling Regulations 1996 (S.R. 1996 No. 383) on 13th December 2014. Regulation 13 and entry 1 of the table in Part 2 of Schedule 6 revoke the remainder of the provisions in the Food Labelling Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 (relating to alcohol-related terms, cream and cheese) on 13th December 2018. Regulation 13 and Schedule 6 also revoke other relevant statutory rules. Regulation 14 and Schedule 7 amend the Food Labelling Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996, during the period before those Regulations are revoked (as described above). They make amendments to other statutory rules to take account of the repeal and replacement of the relevant EU legislation and the revocation of the Food Labelling Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 and correct the definition of “the additives regulations”. Regulation 14 and Part 1 of Schedule 7 also amend the Food (Lot Marking) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 (S.R. 1996 No. 384), to take account of the repeal and replacement of Council Directive 89/396/EEC (OJ No L 186, 30.6.1989, p 21) by Directive 2011/91/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on indications or marks identifying the lot to which a foodstuff belongs (OJ No L 334, 16.12.2011, p 1). Part 2 of Schedule 7 contains the provision implementing the second paragraph of subparagraph 1 of Article 3 of Directive 2000/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (mentioned above). Regulation 14 and Part 1 of Schedule 7 also amend the Food with added Phytosterols or Phytostanols (Labelling) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004 to update the definition of Regulation 608/2004 as amended by Commission Regulation (EU) No 718/2013 until the entire Regulations are revoked by Regulation 13 and Schedule 6 on 13th December 2014.

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