UK Offence Report

Control of products intended for animal feed containing undesirable substances

regulation 14(9) of The Feeding Stuffs (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

9 Any person who without reasonable excuse fails to comply with

a request made under paragraph (8) is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

3 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 comply with a notice or direction
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

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.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

9 Any person who without reasonable excuse fails to comply with a request made under paragraph (8) is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

What would breach regulation 14(9)?

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. On these words an offence is committed where a person without reasonable excuse fails to comply with a request made under paragraph (8).
  2. Being served with a notice under the Feeding Stuffs (Scotland) Regulations 2005 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  3. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  4. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£1,000
Standard scale
Level 3
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

in Scotland a reference to a level is construed as referring to the standard scale as it currently stands (CP(S)A 1995 s.225(2)), not as it stood when the instrument was made.

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
28 November 2005
In force from
1 January 2006
Extent
S

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 apply in relation to Scotland only– a largely revoke and replace the Feeding Stuffs (Scotland) Regulations 2000 as amended, (“the 2000 Regulations”); b introduce new provisions to enforce and administer Regulation (EC) No. 1831/2003 on additives for use in animal nutrition (“the Additives Regulation”); and c implement Commission Directive 2004/116/EC amending the Annex to Council Directive 82/471/EEC as regards the inclusion of Candida guilliermondii. They provide for the implementation, or as the case may be the continuing implementation, of the EC Directives and Decision listed at the end of this note. The Regulations apply to farmed creatures and pet animals, and in regulation 14 also to animals living freely in the wild. The Regulations preserve the modifications made to the Agriculture Act 1970 (“the Act”) by regulations 20 and 21 of the 2000 Regulations, with the minor drafting amendment that the definition of “pet animal” is made explicit rather than by reference to EC legislation (regulations 3 and 4). They continue to prescribe the material that is “prescribed material” for the purposes of sections 68(1) and 69(1) of the Act as any material useable as a feeding stuff (regulation 5). Under those sections, sellers of prescribed materials are required to give to purchasers “statutory statements” covering the composition of the material and information on storage, handling and use. Material held for sale must be marked with such information. They revoke with certain exceptions the provisions of the 2000 Regulations, which were last amended by S.S.I. 2004/208, and re-enact the majority of those provisions (regulation 7). Part II of these Regulations deals with the presentation and composition of feeding stuffs. The content of the statutory statement and other declarations are prescribed by regulation 8 and Schedule 3 and their form by regulation 9 (the labelling of additives and premixtures not mixed with feeding stuffs is now regulated directly by Regulation (EC) No. 1831/2003). The Regulations with minor drafting amendments also re-enact provisions of the 2000 Regulations so as to– a prescribe the limits of inaccuracy permitted in the declaration of ingredients (regulation 10 and Schedule 4); b attribute meanings to the names of certain materials for the purposes of section 70 of the Act (which creates an implicit warranty that material described by a name to which a meaning has been assigned under that section accords with the meaning) (regulation 11); c prescribe the way in which compound feeds may be sealed and packaged (regulation 12); d regulate the putting into circulation and use of feed materials (regulation 13 and Schedule 2); e restrict the putting into circulation or use of feeding stuffs containing specified undesirable substances (regulation 14 and Schedule 5); f prohibit the putting into circulation or use of any feeding stuff containing certain prescribed substances (regulation 15); g control the marketing and use of certain protein sources and non-protein nitrogenous compounds in feeds (regulation 16 and Schedule 6); h regulate the iron content of milk replacer feeds (regulation 17); i prohibit the putting into circulation of compound feeding stuffs in which the amount of ash insoluble in hydrochloric acid exceeds specified levels (regulation 18); and j control the marketing of feeds intended for particular nutritional purposes (dietetics) (regulation 19 and Schedule 7). These Regulations provide for the implementation of Commission Directive 2004/116/EC mentioned above by including Candida guilliermondii among the substances authorised and regulated by regulation 16 and Schedule 6, and in regulation 20 provide for the execution and enforcement of the Additives Regulation by– a making it an offence not to comply with certain specified requirements in the Additives Regulation; b giving effect to the transitional arrangements in the Additives Regulation relating to products already on the market that were authorised under superseded EC legislation; and c giving effect to the transitional arrangements in the Additives Regulation relating to applications for authorisation under the superseded EC legislation that were still being processed at the date of application of the Additives Regulation. In relation to feed additives these Regulations also maintain the duty of confidentiality imposed by the 2000 Regulations on anyone who may, in the course of processing an application for authorisation, have acquired commercially sensitive information (regulation 21). Part III of these Regulations deals with enforcement. It re-enacts provisions in the 2000 Regulations that– a provide for the enforcement of requirements where the legal basis is the European Communities Act 1972 by linking such requirements to enforcement provisions in the Act (regulation 22); b modify section 74A of the Act and provide for offences and penalties in relation to matters covered by the Regulations that would not otherwise come with that section (regulation 23); and c amend the Feeding Stuffs (Sampling and Analysis) Regulations 1999 in the same way as that expressed as a modification in the 2000 Regulations, and also make consequential amendments to the 1999 Regulations mentioned above (regulation 24). The EC Directives and Decision for which these Regulations provide continued implementation are– a Council Directive 70/524/EEC (O.J. No. L 270, 14.12.70, p.1) concerning additives in feedingstuffs (to the extent that its measures are preserved by Regulation (EC) No. 1831/2003), as last amended by Council Regulation (EC) No. 1800/2004 (O.J. No. L 317, 16.10.04, p.37); b Council Directive 79/373/EEC (O.J. No. L 86, 6.4.79, p.30) on the circulation of compound feedingstuffs, as last amended by Council Regulation (EC) No. 807/2003 (O.J. No. L 122, 16.5.03, p.36); c Council Directive 82/471/EEC (O.J. No. L 213, 21.7.82, p.8) concerning certain products used in animal nutrition, as last amended by Commission Directive 2004/116/EC (O.J. No. L 379, 24.12.04, p.81); d Commission Directive 82/475/EEC (O.J. No. L 213, 21.7.82, p.27) laying down the categories of feed materials which may be used for the purposes of labelling compound feedingstuffs for pet animals, as last amended by Commission Directive 98/67/EC amending Directives 80/511/EEC, 82/475/EEC, 91/357/EEC and Council Directive 96/25/EC and repealing Directive 92/87/EEC (O.J. No. L 261, 24.9.98, p.10); e Council Directive 93/74/EEC (O.J. No. L 237, 22.9.93, p.23) on feedingstuffs intended for particular nutritional purposes, as last amended by Council Regulation (EC) No. 806/2003 (O.J. No. L 122, 16.5.03, p.1); f Commission Directive 94/39/EC (O.J. No. L 207, 10.8.94, p.20) establishing a list of intended uses of animal feedingstuffs for particular nutritional purposes, as last amended by Commission Directive 2002/1/EC of 7 January 2002 amending Directive 94/39/EC as regards animal feedingstuffs for the support of liver function in case of chronic liver insufficiency (O.J. No. L 005, 9.1.02, p.8); g Council Directive 96/25/EC (O.J. No. L 125, 23.5.96, p.35) on the circulation and use of feed materials, as last amended by Council Regulation (EC) No. 806/2003 (O.J. No. L 122, 16.5.03, p.1); h Directive 2002/32/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on undesirable substances in animal feed (O.J. No. L 140, 30.5.02, p.10), as last amended by Commission Directive 2005/8/EC of 27 January 2005 amending Annex I to Directive 2002/32/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on undesirable substances in animal feed (O.J. No. L 27, 29.1.05, p.44); and i Commission Decision 2004/217/EC adopting a list of materials whose circulation or use for animal nutrition purposes is prohibited (O.J. No. L 67, 5.3.04, p.31). A full regulatory impact assessment, which includes a compliance cost assessment of the effect which these Regulations will have on business costs, has been prepared and placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre. Copies may be obtained from the Food Standards Agency (Scotland), 6th Floor, 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 0.92.

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