UK Offence Report

Enforcement of compulsory and voluntary labelling requirements

regulation 4(1) of The Beef Labelling (Enforcement) (Scotland) Regulations 2001

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

1 Any person engaged in the marketing of beef who fails to comply–

a in respect of beef derived from animals slaughtered on or after 1st September 2000, with the compulsory and voluntary labelling requirements imposed on that person by or under Title II of Regulation 1760/2000 and Commission Regulation 1825/2000; or

b in respect of beef derived from animals slaughtered before 1st September 2000, with the voluntary labelling requirements imposed on that person by or under Commission Regulation 1141/97, shall be 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to do something the instrument requires
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 4(1)?

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. Not doing what the provision requires under the Beef Labelling (Enforcement) (Scotland) Regulations 2001, by the time it requires it to be done.
  2. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

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 Beef and Veal Labelling (Scotland) Regulations 2008
Revoked on
25 January 2009
Made
28 June 2001
In force from
29 June 2001
Extent
S

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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations provide for the enforcement in Scotland of– a in respect of beef derived from animals slaughtered on or after 1st September 2000, Title II of Regulation (EC) No. 1760/2000 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a system for the identification and registration of bovine animals and regarding the labelling of beef and beef products and Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1825/2000 laying down detailed rules for the application of Regulation (EC) No. 1760/200 as regards the labelling of beef and beef products; and b in respect of beef derived from animals slaughtered before 1st September 2000, Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1141/97 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No. 820/97 as regards the labelling of beef and beef products. The Regulations, which revoke and replace the Beef Labelling (Enforcement) Regulations 1998, provide for the enforcement of the compulsory and voluntary beef labelling schemes established by the above Community instruments. Regulation 3(1) provides that the Scottish Ministers are the competent authority for the purposes of those schemes. The Scottish Ministers enforce these Regulations in slaughterhouses, cutting plants and wholesalers, the relevant local authority in all other places (regulation 3(2)). By regulation 4 it is made an offence for persons engaged in the marketing of beef to fail to comply with the applicable requirements of the compulsory and voluntary beef labelling schemes. It is also made an offence to fail to comply with the requirements of a notice served by an authorised officer requiring the removal from sale of beef which has been wrongly labelled or marketed. These offences are punishable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale (currently £5,000) (regulation 11(1)). The Regulations also confer powers of entry, inspection, sampling and removing labels etc on authorised officers (regulations 5 and 6) and make provision for the protection of officers acting in good faith (regulation 7). Regulation 8 creates offences in respect of the obstruction of any person acting in the execution of the Regulations. These offences may be punishable on summary conviction by a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or imprisonment of up to three months or imprisonment of up to six months, depending on the offence (regulation 11(2) and (3)). Further provision is made in respect of offences by bodies corporate (regulation 9) and the defence of due diligence (regulation 10). A Regulatory Impact Assessment has not been prepared in respect of these Regulations.

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