UK Offence Report

The Contaminants in Food Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2013

regulation 26(4) of The Food (Miscellaneous Amendments and Revocations) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2019

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 In regulation 5 (Controls on contaminants in food)

a for paragraph (1) substitute—

1 A person who contravenes or fails to comply with any of the EU provisions specified in paragraph (2) is guilty of an offence.

b after paragraph (2) insert—

3 The level of erucic acid in

a food must be determined according to sampling methods, and methods of analysis that meet the performance criteria, set out in the Annex to Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/705 laying down methods of sampling and performance criteria for the methods of analysis for the official control of the levels of erucic acid in foodstuffs and repealing Commission Directive 80/891/EEC. .

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
contravening a requirement of the instrument
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 26(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 contravenes or fails to comply with any of the EU provisions specified in paragraph (2).
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Food (Miscellaneous Amendments and Revocations) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2019, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

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
15 January 2019
In force from
11 February 2019
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 amendments to a number of pieces of secondary legislation relating to food and feed. Regulation 13 amends the Food Hygiene Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (S.R. 2006 No. 3) to amend the definition of Regulation (EC) 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs (OJ No L 139, 30.4.2004, p. 1) so as to require that Regulation to be read with new Commission Regulation (EU) No 2017/2158 establishing mitigation measures and benchmark levels for the reduction of the presence of acrylamide in food (OJ No L 304, 21.11.2017, p. 24). Regulation 27 amends the Fruit Juices and Fruit Nectars Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2013 (S.R. 2013 No. 253) to implement Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1040/2014 amending Council Directive 2001/112/EC relating to fruit juices and certain similar products intended for human consumption to adapt its Annex I to technical progress (OJ No L 288, 2.10.2014, p. 1). This allows plant proteins from wheat, peas and potatoes to be used for the clarification of products to which the Fruit Juices and Fruit Nectars Regulations (Northern Ireland 2013 apply. These Regulations make other miscellaneous minor amendments to legislation relating to food and feed, in particular amending out of date references to domestic legislation and to EU instruments.

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