UK Offence Report

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

regulation 7 of The Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2018

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

Offences of contravening specified provisions of Regulation 2018/213 17B Subject to the transitional provisions contained in Article 6, any person who places on the market

a material or article that fails to comply with Article

2 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
selling or supplying something the instrument restricts
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. On these words an offence is committed where a person places on the market a material or article that fails to comply with Article 2.
  2. Selling the goods under the Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2018 where the instrument prohibits the sale outright.
  3. Supplying without carrying out a check the instrument requires first, even where the sale would otherwise be lawful.
  4. Offering for sale counts as well as selling: displaying stock is enough where the provision reaches an offer.

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
31 October 2018
In force from
29 November 2018
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 enforcement of Commission Regulation (EU) 2018/213 (“Regulation 2018/213”) on the use of bisphenol A in varnishes and coatings intended to come into contact with food and amending Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 as regards the use of that substance in plastic food contact materials (OJ L 41, 14.2.2018, p.6). These Regulations amend the principal Regulations so as to— a extend the definitions of “Directive 84/500/EEC”, “Regulation 1935/2004”, “Regulation 2023/2006” and “Regulation 10/2011” to include a reference to the last amending EU Regulation (regulation 3(a) to (d)); b insert a definition of Regulation 2018/213 (regulation 3 (e)); c amend regulation 13 (Interpretation of Part 6 and Schedule 1) to exclude regulation 14(1) and Schedule 1 from its application (regulation 4); d amend regulation 14 (Offences of contravening specified provisions of Regulation 10/2011) to identify transitional arrangements provided for in a number of EU regulations, subject to which regulation 14 makes provision for offences for failure to comply with those requirements of Regulation 10/2011 listed in column 1 of Schedule 1 to the principal Regulations (regulation 5); e amend regulation 16 (Restrictions on the use of certain epoxy derivatives) at 16(2) to remove the reference to Article 6(1), (2) and (4) of Regulation 1895/2005 (transitional provisions which have expired) (regulation 6); f insert a Part 7A, comprising regulations 17A to 17C, to provide for the enforcement of provisions of Regulation 2018/213 on the use of bisphenol A (‘BPA’) in varnishes and coatings intended to come into contact with food for the purposes of Regulation 2018/213 (regulation 7); Regulation 17A makes interpretative provision for Part 7A. Regulation 17B provides that, subject to the transitional provisions contained in Article 6 of Regulation 2018/213, any person who places on the market a material or article which fails to comply with Article 2 of that Regulation is guilty of an offence. Article 2(1) provides that the migration rate of BPA into or onto food from varnishes and coatings shall not exceed 0,05 mg of BPA per kg of food (mg/kg). Article 2(2) permits no migration of BPA from varnishes and coatings intended to be in contact with infant formula, baby foods, products intended for young children etc. Regulation 17C provides that the Food Standards Agency, and each district council in its district, are competent authorities for the purposes of Article 4(3) of Regulation 2018/213 (competent to request business operators to provide appropriate supporting documentation to demonstrate compliance with the written declaration required by Article 4(1) and Annex I to Regulation 2018/213). g amend Regulation 19 (Offences and penalties) to make it an offence to obstruct a person acting in the execution of Regulation 2018/213 (regulation 8(a)) and to provide for sentencing in relation to the offence created by inserted regulation 17B (regulation 8(b)); h amend regulation 23 (General defences) to include reference in paragraph (2) to the offence created by inserted regulation 17B (regulation 9); i amend regulation 2 (Application of various provisions of the Order) to enable an improvement notice under Article 9 of the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 (‘the Order’) to be served on a person, requiring that person to comply with Article 4 of Regulation 2018/213 (provision by business operators of a written declaration of compliance, permitting easy identification of varnishes and coatings, and provision of supporting documentation to the competent authority without delay and, in any event, within 10 days of request) (regulation 10); j omit regulation 27 (the regulations that it amended have since been revoked) and regulation 28 (its operative provisions have expired) (regulation 11); and k amend Schedule 2, Part 1, to provide that the modification by Schedule 2 of Article 9(1) of the Order (improvement notices) applies to improvement notices served in relation to failure to comply with Article 4 of Regulation 2018/213 (regulation 12).

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