UK Offence Report

Amendment of the Quick-frozen Foodstuffs Regulations 1990

regulation 2 of The Quick-frozen Foodstuffs Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2007

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

“specified Community provision” means any provision of Regulation 37/2005 that is specified in column 1 of Schedule 2 and whose subject matter is described in column 2 of that Schedule; ; b i in regulation 3, for “sell” substitute “place on the market”; ii in regulation 4, for “sell” substitute “place on the market” and for “to the ultimate consumer” substitute “intended for the ultimate consumer”; iii in regulation 5(4) for “sell” where it first appears substitute “place on the market”, for “to the ultimate consumer” substitute “intended for the ultimate consumer” and for “no person shall sell it to any other person” substitute “no person shall place on the market any food intended for any other person”; iv in regulation 4(b), 5(1) and 6 for “sale” substitute “placing on the market”; v in regulation 6 for “a sale of” substitute “to be placed on the market”; vi in regulation 8 paragraph (a) is omitted. c in regulation 5(5) for the definition of “Council Directive 89/108/EEC” substitute– “Council Directive 89/108/EEC” means Council Directive 89/108/EEC on the approximation of the laws of Member States relating to quick frozen foodstuffs for human consumption as amended by Regulation 1882/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 September 2003, the Act of accession of Norway, Austria, Sweden and Finland, the Act of accession of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and the Slovak Republic, Regulation 1882/2003 adapting to Council Decision 1999/468/EC the provisions relating to committees which assist the Commission in the exercise of its implementing powers laid down in instruments subject to the procedure referred to in Article 251 of the EC Treaty, Council Directive 2006/107/EC adapting Directive 89/108/EEC relating to quick-frozen foodstuffs for human consumption and Directive 2000/13/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council relating to the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs, by reason of the accession of Bulgaria and Romania ; d regulation 6A is omitted; e in regulation 7 (penalties and enforcement) after paragraph (1) insert– 1A Subject to paragraphs (1B) and (1C), if any person contravenes or fails to comply with a specified Community provision, that person shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale. 1B A person shall not be considered to have contravened or failed to comply with the first sentence of the first paragraph of Article 2.2 of Regulation 37/2005 if the requirements of Schedule 3 are complied with. 1C A person shall not be considered to have contravened or failed to comply with Article 2 of Regulation 37/2005 if– a the offence which would otherwise have been committed was in respect of a cold store facility with a capacity of less than 10m3 used for storing stock in retail outlets; and b the air temperature in the cold store is measured by an easily visible thermometer. . f for Schedule 2 substitute the Schedule set out in Schedule 1 to these Regulations; g after Schedule 2 as substituted by paragraph (f) above, insert the Schedule set out in Schedule 2 to these Regulations.

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
selling or supplying something the instrument restricts
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 2?

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. Selling the goods under the Quick-frozen Foodstuffs Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2007 where the instrument prohibits the sale outright.
  2. Supplying without carrying out a check the instrument requires first, even where the sale would otherwise be lawful.
  3. Offering for sale counts as well as selling: displaying stock is enough where the provision reaches an offer.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
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
21 February 2007
In force from
16 March 2007
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 extend to Scotland only, amend the Quick-frozen Foodstuffs Regulations 1990 (S.I. 1990/2615, as amended). They provide for the execution and enforcement of Commission Regulation (EC) No. 37/2005 (“Regulation 37/2005”) on the monitoring and storage of quick-frozen foodstuffs intended for human consumption (O.J. No. L 10, 13.1.05, p.18.) These Regulations– a prohibit failure to comply with specified provisions of Regulation 37/2005 and provide penalties for a failure to comply with that prohibition (regulation 2(e) and (f) and Schedule 1)); b provide an exception to that prohibition for a transitional period up to the 1st January 2010 (regulation 2(e), (g) and Schedule 2); c revoke provisions of the Quick-frozen Foodstuffs Regulations 1990 which implemented Directive 92/1/EEC (O.J. No. L 34, 11.2.92, p.28) which was revoked by Regulation 37/2005 (regulation 2(b)(vi) and (d); d update and supplement the interpretation provisions of the instrument (regulations 2(a) and (b)). A full regulatory impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business (and the voluntary sector) 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

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”; the provision states liability on summary conviction; the provision states a penalty in older drafting
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