UK Offence Report

Compliance with maximum residue levels

regulation 6 of The Pesticides (Maximum Residue Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2008

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

6 It is an offence for any person, without reasonable excuse, to–

a place, or cause or permit any other person to place, on the market as food or feed; or

b feed, or cause or permit any other person to feed, to any animal, any product covered by Annex I to Regulation 396/2005 in breach of Article 18(1) of that Regulation as read with Article

20 of that Regulation.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
contravening a requirement of the instrument
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); other provisions of the same instrument use a mens rea word while this one does not (the Cundy v Le Cocq contrast).

The defence, as drafted

6 It is an offence for any person, without reasonable excuse, to– a place, or cause or permit any other person to place, on the market as food or feed; or b feed, or cause or permit any other person to feed, to any animal, any product covered by Annex I to Regulation 396/2005 in breach of Article 18(1) of that Regulati

What would breach regulation 6?

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 the thing the provision prohibits under the Pesticides (Maximum Residue Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2008, whatever the reason for doing it.
  2. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£10,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland.

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
15 October 2008
In force from
18 November 2008
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 enforce the provisions of Regulation (EC) No. 396/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council on maximum residue levels of pesticides in or on food and feed of plant and animal origin and amending Council Directive 91/41/EEC (“Regulation 396/2005”). Regulation 4 designates the Scottish Ministers as the national authority for the purposes of Article 38 of Regulation 396/2005. Regulation 5 provides that the functions of the member State under Regulation 396/2005 are to be exercised by the Scottish Ministers. Regulation 6 creates an offence of placing, or causing or permitting to be placed, on the market as food or feed, or feeding or causing or permitting to be fed, to an animal, any product covered by Annex I to Regulation 396/2005, if that product contains pesticide residue levels in excess of those specified in Article 18(1) of that Regulation, as read with Article 20(1). Regulation 7 creates an offence of processing or mixing, or causing or permitting to be processed or mixed, certain products with a view to placing them on the market as food or feed, or feeding them to animals. Regulation 8 and Schedule 1 set out the powers of inspectors. Regulation 11 provides that any person guilty of an offence under these Regulations is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or, on conviction on indictment, to a fine. A Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) was prepared in respect of the Pesticides (Maximum Residue Levels in Crops, Food and Feeding Stuffs) (Scotland) Regulations 2005 (SSI 2005/599), which this instrument revokes and replaces. That RIA provides a basis for establishing the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sector. Copies of the RIA can be obtained from the Scottish Government Rural Directorate, Room 259, Pentland House, Robb’s Loan, Edinburgh EH14 1TY. A copy of the RIA has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.

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 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 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