UK Offence Report

Offence and penalty

regulation 4 of The Food Safety (Information and Compositional Requirements) 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

4 A person who fails to comply with Article 9(2) of the EU Regulation (substances in dangerous quantities) as read with Articles 1(1) and 4(1) is guilty of an offence and 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 4?

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 Article 9(2) of the EU Regulation (substances in dangerous quantities) as read with Articles 1(1) and 4(1).
  2. Not doing what the provision requires under the Food Safety (Information and Compositional Requirements) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016, 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
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
27 June 2016
In force from
20 July 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 provision to enforce Regulation (EU) No 609/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council, on the provisions of food intended for infants and young children, food for special medical purposes, and total diet replacement for weight control and repealing Council Directive 92/52/EEC, Commission Directives 96/8/EC, 1999/21/EC, 2006/125/EC and 2006/141/EC, Directive 2009/39/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Regulations (EC) No 41/2009 and (EC) No 953/2009. These Regulations implement the framework of Regulation (EU) No 609/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and introduce an improvement notice enforcement regime. Regulation 3 provides for the enforcement of these Regulations by each district council within its district. Regulation 4 creates an offence and penalty for breach of Article 9(2) of Regulation (EU) No 609/2013 Regulation 5 and Schedule 2 apply certain provisions of the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 (S.I. 1991 N.I.7) with modifications. This includes the application (with modifications) of Article 9(1), enabling an improvement notice to be served requiring compliance with a specified EU requirement. The provisions, as applied and modified, make the failure to comply with an improvement notice a criminal offence. Regulation 6 and Schedule 3 amends statutory rules to take account of the repeal and replacement of relevant EU legislation Regulation 7 revokes the Notification of Marketing of Food for Particular Nutritional Uses Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 (S.R. 2007 No. 60), the Food for Particular Nutritional Uses (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010 (S.R. 2010 No. 33), and regulations 26 and 27 of the Infant Formula and Follow on Formula Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 (S.R. 2007 No. 506).

Read the full note and every offence in this 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