UK Offence Report

Non-compliance with certain requirements of the FIC Regulation

regulation 22A(1) of The Weights and Measures (Food) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016

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 Subject to paragraph (2),

a food business operator to which Article 1(3) of the FIC Regulation applies is guilty of an offence if that food business operator fails to comply with—

a any of the provisions of Article

8 of the FIC Regulation (responsibilities of food business operators) applicable to the food business operator, to the extent that the provisions relate to net quantity;

b Article 9(1)(e) of the FIC Regulation (mandatory indication of net quantity of food), except to the extent that it relates to

a failure to comply with Article 13(5) of the FIC Regulation; or

c Chapter V of the FIC Regulation (voluntary food information), to the extent that it imposes requirements in respect of net quantity.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
an food business operator
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 an food business operator 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 22A(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. Not doing what the provision requires under the Weights and Measures (Food) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016, by the time it requires it to be done.
  2. 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 here: this instrument amends another one, and the penalty for the offence is in the instrument being amended.

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
22 March 2016
In force from
18 April 2016
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 the necessary adjustments to remove provisions from weights and measures law applying in Northern Ireland that overlap or conflict with Regulation (EU) No1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the provision of food information to consumers (“the FIC Regulation”). These Regulations enable the enforcement of certain provisions of the FIC Regulation, to the extent that the provisions relate to net quantity. The FIC Regulation sets out common principles, requirements and procedures in relation to food information. These Regulations amend the Weights and Measures (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 (1981/231(N.I.10)), the Weights and Measures (Various Foods) Order (Northern Ireland) 1988 (S.R. 1988 No.408), the Weights and Measures (Miscellaneous Foods) Order (Northern Ireland) 1989 (S.R. 1989 No.69), the Weights and Measures (Intoxicating Liquor) Order 1989 (S.R. 1989 No.164), the Weights and Measures (Quantity Marking and Abbreviations of Units) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 (S.R. 1999 No.84) and the Weights and Measures (Packaged Goods) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2011 (S.R. 2011 No.331). The amendments to the above legislation will remove from their scope items falling within the definition of “prepacked food” in Article 2(2)(e) of the FIC Regulation. Due to differences between the definition of “pre-packed” under Northern Ireland legislation (Article 2(2) of the Weights and Measures (Northern Ireland) Order 1981), and the definition of “prepacked food” under the FIC Regulation, the Northern Ireland legislation must, on the whole, be maintained, in order to regulate the residual categories that are caught by the Northern Ireland legislation but are not within the scope of the FIC Regulation. Those categories are items that are a) made up for direct sale (within the meaning of the FIC Regulation) by way of retail and/or b) made up in advance ready for retail sale in an open container. Items caught by b) include items that are packaged in the form in which they will be presented for retail sale (where that is in an open container), without further processing or labelling. Both of these categories are captured by the definition of “pre-packed” but do not fall within the scope of “prepacked food” under the FIC Regulation. Consequential amendments have been made to clarify what is meant by “not pre-packed”, which in practice now includes only foods sold loose, and “otherwise made up in a container for sale”, which in practice now includes only foods that are made up in a container for wholesale that do not otherwise fall within the scope of the FIC Regulation or within the scope of limb b) of the definition of “pre-packed” referred to above. Regulations 5 and 6 and 8 to 11 amend certain provisions of the Weights and Measures (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 (“the 1981 Order”) to enable the offence and enforcement provisions of that Order to apply, where relevant, to products regulated by the FIC Regulation. Regulation 7 inserts a new offence into the 1981 Order for non-compliance with certain requirements of the FIC Regulation. Those requirements are the provisions of Article 8 (where applicable) and Chapter V, in each case to the extent that they relate to net quantity, and Article 9(1)(e). Article 8 sets out responsibilities of food business operators. Chapter V sets out mandatory requirements where food information is provided on a voluntary basis. Article 9(1)(e) provides for the net quantity requirements, which must be applied in accordance with the relevant provisions of Articles 10 to 35, which includes Article 23 (net quantity) and by reference Annex IX (technical rules relating to net quantity). Regulation 12 removes products subject to the FIC Regulation from the scope of paragraphs 2 to 4 of Schedule 7 to the 1981 Order. Regulations 15 and 16 amend the Weights and Measures (Various Foods) Order (Northern Ireland) 1988 to exclude products that are within the scope of prepacked food as defined in the FIC Regulation and to clarify which products remain within the scope of that Order. Regulations 19 to 30 amend provisions of the Weights and Measures (Miscellaneous Foods) Order (Northern Ireland) 1989 to exclude products that are within the scope of prepacked food as defined in the FIC Regulation and to clarify which products remain within the scope of that Order. Regulation 32 substitutes Article 6 of the Weights and Measures (Intoxicating Liquor) Order (Northern Ireland) 1989, to exclude intoxicating liquor and other liquids specified in column 1 of Schedule 1 to that Order that are within the scope of prepacked food as defined in the FIC Regulation and to clarify which products remain within the scope of that Order. Regulation 34 amends the Weights and Measures (Quantity Marking and Abbreviations of Units) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 to clarify that Part II of those Regulations does not apply to products that are within the scope of the FIC Regulation. Regulations 37 and 38 amend regulation 3 of the Weights and Measures (Packaged Goods) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2011 to revoke exemptions for small quantities of specific products listed in Schedule 6, other than in relation to sugar, a specific exemption for which is provided in Article 2(2) of Council Directive 2001/111/EC of 20 December 2001 relating to certain sugars intended for human consumption; this can be maintained in accordance with Article 11 of the FIC Regulation. Regulation 37 also revokes exemptions in relation to fruits and vegetables listed in Annex 1 to Council Regulation 2200/96 and frozen poultry meat. These exemptions are no longer compatible with EU law. Regulation 37 also provides for a new regulation 3(6), which limits the application of the labelling requirements (as defined) under the Weights and Measures (Packaged Goods) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2011 to those packages which are marked with the e-mark. This recognises that for e-marked packages, the more specific EU rules on weights and measures under Directive 76/211/EEC will continue to apply, in accordance with Article 11 of the FIC Regulation. For prepacked food that is not e-marked, the provisions of the FIC Regulation will apply and therefore those items are excluded from the quantity labelling requirements of the Weights and Measures (Packaged Goods) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2011 (other than in relation to regulation 8(1) of the Weights and Measures (Packaged Goods) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2011 to the extent that trade practice provides that liquid products may be marked with nominal quantity by weight and that packages containing other products may be marked with nominal quantity by volume; this can continue to be applied to prepacked food that is not e-marked, in accordance with Article 42 of the FIC Regulation). An impact assessment was undertaken at the EU level in relation to the FIC Regulation, whichisavailablefrom http://ec.europa.eu/food/safety/docs/labelling_legislation_general-food-labelling_en.pdf. The changes made by these Regulations do not impact directly on the costs of businesses, the voluntary sector or the public sector.

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