UK Offence Report

Amendment of the Materials and Articles in Contact with Food Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012

regulation 9 of The Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2017

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 Any person who, in purported compliance with any requirement under paragraph (3), knowingly or recklessly supplies information that is false or misleading in any material particular is guilty of an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
obstructing an official exercising a power
Fault element
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

The prosecution must prove both that the conduct happened and that it was done with the state of mind the provision names (intentionally, knowingly, knowingly or recklessly, recklessly).

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: knowingly, recklessly, knowingly or recklessly; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

hese Regulations is guilty of an offence. 3 Any person who, without reasonable excuse, fails to provide any assistance or information a person may reasonably require for the performance of their functions under the Regulations mentioned in paragraph (2) is guilty of an offence. 4 Any person who, in purported compliance with any requirement und

What would breach regulation 9?

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. Refusing to let an inspector onto premises they are entitled to enter under the Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2017.
  2. Sending an official away, or telling staff to say nothing, where the power being exercised does not depend on anyone's consent.
  3. Physically blocking an examination, or removing something an officer has said they intend to inspect.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown 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
9 August 2017
In force from
14 September 2017
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 Materials and Articles in Contact with Food Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012 (“the principal Regulation”) to provide for the continued enforcement of Commission Regulation (EU) No. 10/2011 on plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food) as amended by Commission Regulation (EU) No. 2016/1416. Those amendments include— a removal of offences in Regulations 7(2), 14(2), 16(4), 19(1) and 19(3) of the principal Regulations (regulation 4, 6, 8(b) and 9); b amendment of regulation 26 (application of various provisions of the Order) and insertion of a Schedule to the principal Regulations to apply Article 9(1) of the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991, enabling improvement notices to be served to require compliance with provisions of the principal Regulations and provisions of EU Regulations specified in regulation 26(1). The provisions, as applied, make the failure to comply with an improvement notice an offence under Article 9(2) of the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 (regulation 12 and 14); c amendments to remove the requirement to provide a written declaration from regulation 12(8) (regulation 5) and regulation 16(3) of the principal Regulations (regulation 8); d minor amendments to clarify the competent authorities (regulation 7) and enforcement authorities (regulation 10); e minor amendments to regulation 22(2) to reflect the removal of criminal offences (regulation 11); f amendments to the Schedule to the principal Regulations to insert provisions of Regulation 10/2011 and amend the numbering (regulation 13).

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