UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Specified Risk Material Amendment (No. 3) (Scotland) Regulations 2001

the instrument as a whole of The Specified Risk Material Amendment (No. 3) (Scotland) Regulations 2001

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

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
breaching the provision
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. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Specified Risk Material Amendment (No. 3) (Scotland) Regulations 2001.

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
Status not determined
Made
14 August 2001
In force from
20 August 2001
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, which extend to Scotland only, make further amendments to the Specified Risk Material Regulations 1997 (“the principal Regulations”). These Regulations implement the provisions of Annex XI to Regulation (EC) No. 999/2001 of the European Parliament and the Council laying down rules for the prevention, control and eradication of certain transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (O.J. No. L 147, 31.5.01, p.1). Part A of Annex XI imposes transitional measures with regard to the removal of specified risk material and was inserted into Regulation (EC) No. 999/01 by Article 3 of Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1326/2001 (O.J. No. L 177, 30.6.01, p.60). The substantive amendments made by these Regulations to the principal Regulations are as follows– a in respect of the transitional measures referred to above– i regulation 3 of the principal Regulations (which defines “specified sheep and goat material”) is amended to exclude from the scope of the definition material derived from sheep and goats born, continuously reared and slaughtered in certain third countries (regulation 2(4) and (5)); ii regulation 4 of the principal Regulations (which defines “specified bovine material”) is substantially revised so that, in particular, material derived from bovine animals born, continuously reared and slaughtered in certain third countries is now outside the scope of the definition (regulation 2(6) to (8)); iii regulation 8 of the principal Regulations (prohibition applying to the vertebral column of ruminant animals) is replaced with a provision prohibiting the use of bovine, ovine and caprine bones in the production of mechanically recovered meat (regulation 2(10)) and regulation 9 (registration of premises on which meat is recovered by mechanical means from ruminant animals) is omitted (regulation 2(11)); iv a new regulation 15A dealing with the treatment of carcases consigned to cutting premises and imported carcases containing vertebral column, which is specified bovine material, is inserted into the principal Regulations (regulation 2(13)); and b in view of the amendment made to regulation 26 of the principal Regulations by the Food Standards Act 1999 (Transitional and Consequential Provisions and Savings) (Scotland) Regulations 2000 (S.S.I. 2000/62), that regulation is further amended to enable the Scottish Ministers or the Food Standards Agency to give directions relating to the disposal of specified risk material (regulation 2(14) and (15)). A consequential amendment is also required to regulation 29(2)(c) (regulation 2(16)). These Regulations also make consequential amendments to the principal Regulations (regulation 2(2), (3), (9) and (12)). A Regulatory Impact Assessment, which includes a compliance cost assessment of the effect that these Regulations are likely to have on business costs, has been prepared and placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre. Copies may be obtained from the Food Standards Agency, St Magnus House, 25 Guild Street, Aberdeen AB11 6NJ.

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 0.70.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.70 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