Control of feed intended for particular nutritional purposes

Q: Is regulation 17 of The Food and Feed Hygiene and Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 a strict liability offence?

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.

regulation 17 of The Food and Feed Hygiene and Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020

Status not determined
Strict liability
Agriculture, plant health, food production and rural affairs

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

17 A person who contravenes or fails to comply with Article 1 (conditions on marketing), as read with Article 2 (derogation for feed which complies with the provisions of Directive 2008/38/EC) and Article 3 (derogation for feed labelled before
25 March 2022 in accordance with the rules applicable before
25 March 2020) commits 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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: 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 17?

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.

Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Food and Feed Hygiene and Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020, whatever the reason for doing it.
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.

Animal cruelty: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 July 2017
Covers cruelty to and neglect of animals, and the associated disqualification and deprivation orders.
Health and safety offences, corporate manslaughter and food safety and hygiene offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 February 2016
Covers breaches of duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the regulations made under it, and food safety and food hygiene offences. Sentencing turns on culpability and on the seriousness and likelihood of harm risked, not only on the harm that happened.
Reduction in sentence for a guilty plea: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 June 2017
The sliding scale of credit for pleading guilty, from one third at the first stage of proceedings downwards.
General guideline: overarching principles All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 October 2019
The guideline a court uses when there is no offence-specific guideline, which is the position for the overwhelming majority of offences created by statutory instrument. It sets out how culpability and harm are assessed from first principles.
Totality: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales
How to sentence more than one offence at once so that the total is just and proportionate - frequently in point here, because regulatory prosecutions commonly charge several breaches of the same instrument.

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: 30 November 2020
In force from: 25 December 2020
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

These Regulations amend the Official Feed and Food Controls Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009(S.R.2009 No.427 as last amended by S.R 2019 No.218) (“the 2009 Regulations”). The 2009 Regulations provide for the execution and enforcement of Regulation (EU) 2017/625 of the European Parliament and of the Council on official controls and other official activities performed to ensure the application of food and feed law, rules on animal health and welfare, plant health and plant protection products, amending Regulations (EC) No. 999/2001, (EC) No. 396/2005, (EC) No. 1069/2009, (EC) No. 1107/2009, (EU) No. 1151/2012, (EU) No. 652/2014, (EU) 2016/429 and (EU) 2016/2031 of the European Parliament and of the Council, Council Regulations (EC) No. 1/2005 and (EC) No. 1099/2009 and Council Directives 98/58/EC, 1999/74/EC, 2007/43/EC, 2008/119/EC and 2008/120/EC, and repealing Regulations (EC) No 854/2004 and (EC) No 882/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council, Council Directives 89/608/EEC, 89/662/EEC, 90/425/EEC, 91/496/EEC, 96/23/EC, 96/93/EC and 97/78/EC and Council Decision 92/438/EEC (Official Controls Regulations) (OJ No. L95 7.4.2017, p. 1) (“Regulation 2017/625”). Regulation 3(2) substitutes a revised definition of “product” in regulation 21 to provide that food and feed of non-animal origin regulated under Article 47(1)(d), (e) or (f) of Regulation 2017/625 is included in the scope of Part 3. Regulation 3(3) makes a consequential amendment as a result of the revised definition. Regulation 3(4) amends regulation 34 to make provision for the payment of costs of official controls under Article 79(2)(a) and (c) of Regulation 2017/625 in respect of Part 3. These Regulations will also amend the Animal Feed (Composition, Marketing and Use) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 (S.R 2016 No.4) and the Animal Feed (Hygiene, Sampling etc. and Enforcement) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 (S.R. 2016 No. 5) to provide for the execution and enforcement of Commission Regulation (EU) 2020/354 establishing a list of intended uses of feed intended for particular nutritional purposes and repealing Directive 2008/38/EC (OJ No. L67, 5.3.2020, p.1.). These Regulations substitute references to Regulation 2017/625 for references to Regulation 882/2004 in the Animal Feed (Hygiene, Sampling etc. and Enforcement) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 (S.R.2016 No.4). Regulation 2017/625 revoked and replaced Regulation 882/2004. An impact assessment has not been produced for this statutory Rule as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same instrument

Control of feed intended for particular nutritional purposes 17 A person who contravenes or fails to comply…regulation 4(3)

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 “commits 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

This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
The Food and Feed Hygiene and Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
Agriculture, plant health, food production and rural affairsOther offences on the same subject
Offences created in 2020