UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Miscellaneous Food Additives and the Sweeteners in Food Amendment (Scotland)…

the instrument as a whole of The Miscellaneous Food Additives and the Sweeteners in Food 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

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 and the Sweeteners in Food Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2007.

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
5 September 2007
In force from
1 October 2007
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. 1995/3187 as amended) (“the Additives Regulations”) in order to provide for the implementation of– a Directive 2006/52/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 95/2/EC on food additives other than colours and sweeteners and Directive 94/35/EC on sweeteners for use in foodstuffs (O.J. No. L 204, 26.7.06, p.10), as corrected by a Corrigendum (O.J. No. L 78, 17.3.07, p.32); and b Commission Directive 2006/129/EC amending and correcting Directive 96/77/EC laying down specific purity criteria on food additives other than colours and sweeteners (O.J. No. L 346, 9.12.06, p.15). These Regulations also amend the Sweeteners in Food Regulations 1995 (S.I. 1995/3123 as amended) in order to provide for the implementation of Directive 2006/52/EC mentioned above and of Commission Directive 2006/128/EC amending and correcting Directive 95/31/EC laying down specific criteria of purity concerning sweeteners for use in foodstuffs (O.J. No. L 346, 9.12.06, p.6). In particular these Regulations amend the Additives Regulations by– a amending certain definitions used in the Additives Regulations, including updating references to recently amended EC legislation (regulation 3); b making a transitional provision to permit the marketing of food additives or food placed on the market or labelled before 15th August 2008 if such marketing would have been lawful under the Additives Regulations before they were amended by these Regulations (regulation 4); c specifying certain additives that may not be used in the manufacture of jelly cups (regulation 5(a)); d adding a new substance to the permitted additives listed in Schedule 1, which concerns miscellaneous additives generally permitted for foods not referred to in Schedules 6, 7 or 8 (regulation 5(b)); e altering certain limits, removing certain substances and adding others to the conditionally permitted preservatives and anti-oxidants in Part A of Schedule 2 (regulation 6); f amending the entries relating to crustaceans and cephalopods, amending references to foods for infants and young children and adding two new entries to Part B of Schedule 2, which deals with sulphur dioxide and sulphites (regulation 7); g replacing, with amendments, Part C of Schedule 2 which relates to the use of potassium nitrite and nitrate and sodium nitrite and nitrate (regulation 8 and Schedule 1); h replacing, with amendments, Part D of Schedule 2 which relates to the use of certain anti-oxidants (regulation 9 and Schedule 2); i adding certain substances and amending conditions of use for some already permitted substances in Schedule 3, which concerns other permitted miscellaneous additives, and amending certain defined expressions used in that Schedule (regulation 10); j adding two substances and amending the conditions of use for one already permitted in Schedule 4, which concerns permitted carriers and carrier solvents (regulation 11); k amending Schedule 7, concerning foods in which a limited number of additives may be used, by the addition of certain foods and the addition of one additive to those permitted in one particular food (regulation 12); and l amending a defined expression for a class of foods where it appears in Schedule 8, which concerns miscellaneous additives permitted in foods for infants and young children, and adding a permitted substance to that Schedule (regulation 13). These Regulations amend the Sweeteners in Food Regulations 1995 by– a updating references to recently amended by EC legislation (regulation 14(2)); and b adding a substance to Schedule 1, which concerns permitted sweeteners and the foods in or on which they may be used (regulation 14(3)). A full regulatory impact assessment of the effect that this instrument 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 0.70.

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