UK Offence Report

Amendments to the Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (Scotland) Regulations 2007

regulation 4 of The Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2009

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

4 After regulation 5 (enforcement of Regulation 2023/2006) insert— Enforcement of Regulation 450/2009 5A Any person who contravenes any of the following provisions of Regulation 450/2009 is guilty of an offence—

a Article 4(f) (prohibition on the placing on the market of active and intelligent materials and articles that do not comply with labelling requirements);

b Article 11(1) and (2) (additional rules on labelling), as read with the 4th indent of Article 14;

c Article 12 (declaration of compliance); and

d Article 13 (supporting documentation). .

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 4?

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 contravenes any of the following provisions of Regulation 450/2009.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2009, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated here: this instrument amends another one, and the penalty for the offence is in the instrument being amended.

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
24 November 2009
In force from
19 December 2009
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 further amend the Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (Scotland) Regulations 2007 (“the principal Regulations”) in order to provide for the execution and enforcement of Commission Regulation (EC) No. 450/2009 on active and intelligent materials and articles intended to come into contact with food (“Regulation 450/2009”). The Regulations also amend the definition of “import” in the principal Regulations. In detail, these Regulations amend the principal Regulations by— a inserting a definition of Regulation 450/2009 (regulation 3(a)(i)); b amending the definition of “import” to refer to products which come from outside the European Economic Area (regulation 3(a)(ii)); c making it an offence to contravene specified requirements of Regulation 450/2009 (regulation4) and attaching penalties for such an offence (regulation 6); d specifying the competent authorities for the purposes of certain provisions of Regulation 450/2009 (regulation 5); e designating the enforcement authorities for the purposes of certain provisions of Regulation 450/2009 (regulation 7); and f providing that certain provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 apply for the purposes of the enforcement of Regulation 450/2009 (regulation 8). A Regulatory Impact Assessment has not been prepared for this instrument as any impact on business or the public or third sectors is unlikely to be significant.

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”
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