UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Food (Animals and Animal Products from Belgium) (Emergency Control) (Scotland) Order 1999

the instrument as a whole of The Food (Animals and Animal Products from Belgium) (Emergency Control) (Scotland) Order 1999

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

Contravening this instrument is an offence under sections 10(2), 33 and 35 of the Food Safety Act 1990. The instrument itself contains no offence-creating words.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
importing or exporting without authority
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
Not determined

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.

Classifier’s reasoning: contravention offences of this kind are strict as to the breach; the fault position is governed by the parent Act and was not read from it.

What would breach the instrument as a whole?

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. Moving the goods across the border under the Food (Animals and Animal Products from Belgium) (Emergency Control) (Scotland) Order 1999 without the licence the instrument requires.
  2. Holding a licence for one consignment and using it for another.
  3. Sending goods in transit through the United Kingdom, where the provision catches transit as well as import and export.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Set by another provision — the instrument states the penalty by reference to an Act or to another regulation
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

The instrument does not state a penalty itself. It sets one by reference to sections 10(2), 33 and 35 of the Food Safety Act 1990.

the penalty is in the parent Act, not in this instrument.

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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Food (Animals and Animal Products from Belgium) (Emergency Control) (No.2) (Scotland) Order 1999
Revoked on
20 August 1999
Made
28 July 1999
In force from
29 July 1999
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order, which applies to Scotland, revokes in relation to Scotland, and re-enacts with certain changes, the Food (Animals and Animal Products from Belgium) (Emergency Control) Order 1999 (S.I.1999/1542) as amended by the Food (Animals and Animal Products from Belgium) (Emergency Control) (Amendment) Order 1999 (S.I.1999/1763) (“the revoked Orders”) both of which applied to Great Britain. The Order also implements in Scotland, in relation to food and food sources Commission Decision 1999/449/EC (“the Decision”) on protective measures with regard to contamination by dioxins of certain products of animal origin intended for human or animal consumption (OJ No. L175, 10.7.1999, p.70) which consolidates with changes Commission Decision 1999/363/EC (OJ No. L141, 4.6.1999, p.24) and Commission Decision 1999/389/EC (OJ No. L147, 12.6.1999, p.26) as amended, in both cases, by Commission Decision 1999/390/EC (OJ No. L147, 12.6.1999, p.29) and Commission Decision 1999/419/EC (OJ No. L159, 25.6.1999, p.60). Like the revoked orders, this Order defines ‘relevant animal and animal product’ (article 1), prohibits (with exceptions (article 2)) the carrying out of commercial operations relating to relevant animal and animal products (article 3), specifies the enforcement authorities (article 4) and applies with modifications provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 (article 5). In addition to making minor and drafting changes to the revoked Orders, the Order, by referring to the Decision, makes the following changes of substance– a whilst the Decision continues, like its predecessor, to cover live domestic fowls, hatching eggs and products derived from domestic fowl, pigs or bovine animals– i it now refers directly to products containing but not exclusively consisting of products of the fowl and animals concerned, but excludes egg whites, ii the rearing period in relation to which continuing controls applicable to pigs and bovine animals and products derived from them apply is closed on 3rd June 1999, and iii in relation to particular products, the controls contained in the Decision no longer apply where analysis shows that the level of contamination by dioxins does not exceed the relevant maximum level for PCB set out in Annex A to the Decision; b there is a variation in the certification required for the importation of products from Belgium; and c the circumstances in which controlled food products may be returned to Belgium now call for information in relation to the return to be exchanged between authorities by fax, and only apply where Belgian authorities are unable to certify the origin of suspect goods under the Decision.

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 0.59.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.59 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