UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Miscellaneous Food Additives Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2005

the instrument as a whole of The Miscellaneous Food Additives Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2005 (revoked)

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 Miscellaneous Food Additives Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2005.

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
12 April 2005
In force from
5 May 2005
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, amend the Miscellaneous Food Additives Regulations 1995 (S.I. No. 1995/3187) and implement Directive 2003/114/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 95/2/EC on food additives other than colours and sweeteners (O.J. No. L 24, 29.1.2004, p.58). These Regulations amend the Miscellaneous Food Additives Regulations 1995 in relation to Scotland by– a inserting a definition of flavouring, as the Regulations now apply to control the use of miscellaneous additives in flavourings (regulation 3(a) and (c)); b bringing up to date the definition of “Directive 95/2/EC” to cover the amendment of that Directive by Directive 2003/114/EC (regulation 3(b)); c substituting a new definition for “stabiliser” to include substances which increase the binding capacity of food (regulation 3(d)); d making an amendment to regulation 4 to ensure that a flavouring which lawfully has in or on it a permitted miscellaneous additive can be used as an ingredient in a compound food e .(regulation 4); f providing that where a permitted miscellaneous additive used in a flavouring performs a technological function in the final food in which that flavouring is an ingredient, it is to be regarded as an additive of the final food (regulation 5); g prohibiting the use of additives in flavourings in quantities greater than the minimum necessary, or in circumstances where they would be a hazard to human health or misleading to the consumer (regulation 5); h making transitional provision to allow the marketing of additives, flavourings or foods marketed or labelled before 27th January 2006, which are legal under existing rules (regulation 6); i allowing standardisation of, E407a, in addition to E407 and E440 with sugars, provided this is stated in addition to the number and designation of the additive (regulation 7(a)); j substituting “calcium carbonate” as the name for E170 (regulations 7(b), 13(b) and 14(b)); k adding to the acceptable names for E446, E468 and E469 (regulations 7(c) and (d) and 12(a)); l adding a new additive, E907, for use as a glazing agent in sugar confectionery and dried fruit (regulation 11(j)); m substituting new definitions of food categories in which permitted miscellaneous additives may be used (regulations 8(a) and 10(b)); n extending food categories in which permitted miscellaneous additives can be used (regulations 8(b(i)), 9(b),), 11(d) ), 13(a) and (c) (e), 14(d)); o adding one new carrier solvent (E555) to the permitted list in Schedule 4 for use in certain specified colours (regulation 12(b)); p introducing numerical limits for the use of E903 (carnauba wax) (regulation 11(i)); q introducing new provisions for the restricted use of additives in flavourings (regulations 10(a), 11(a)(i) (c) and (e) (g) and (k)). r deleting one additive (E230) from the permitted list in Schedule 2 Part C (regulation 9(a)); s deleting one food category (cider and perry) from the foods permitted to contain phosphates (regulation 11(a) (ii)); t providing a definition of spice oleoresins in Schedule 3 (regulation 11(l)); u clarifying the extent to which E1450 may be carried over into formulae and weaning foods for infants (regulation 14(a)); and v bringing up to date the title of Part 4 of Schedule 8 to take account of Commission Directive 1999/21/EC on dietary foods for special medical purposes (O.J. No. L 91, 7.4.1999, p.29) (regulation 14(c)). A full Regulatory Impact Assessment which includes an assessment the effect which these Regulations will have on the costs of business has been prepared and placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre. Copies may be obtained from the Food Standards Agency (Scotland), 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 0.76.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.76 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