UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 17(1) of The Food Hygiene (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2010

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

1 Subject to paragraphs (4) to (8), any person who contravenes or fails to comply with any of the specified Community provisions is guilty of an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 17(1)?

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 or fails to comply with any of the specified Community provisions.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Food Hygiene (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2010, 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
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
3 months
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

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
25 February 2010
In force from
13 April 2010
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 amend the Food Hygiene (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (“the 2006 Regulations”) by updating the definitions of certain EU instruments that are referred to in those Regulations and by providing that when certain requirements are complied with a person shall be considered not to have contravened or failed to comply with specified provisions of Regulation (EC) No.853/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down specific hygiene rules for food of animal origin. These Regulations amend the 2006 Regulations to update the definitions of certain EU instruments by— a substituting definitions of certain EU instruments for the definitions of the EU instruments that currently appear after the definition of “the Community Regulations” in paragraph (1) of regulation2 (interpretation) (regulation 2(2)); and b substituting a revised Schedule1 (definitions of EU legislation) for the existing Schedule1 (regulation 2(4)). These Regulations also amend the 2006 Regulations to provide that when certain requirements are complied with a person shall be considered not to have contravened or failed to comply with specified provisions of Regulation (EC) No.853/2004 by substituting a revised regulation 17 (offences and penalties) and inserting new Schedules (regulation 2(3) and (5)). The specified provisions of EU legislation and the related requirements that must be complied with if a person is to be considered not to have contravened or failed to comply with them are set out in the following paragraphs together with the relevant provision of revised regulation 17— a Article 3(1) or 4(1)(a) of Regulation (EC) No. 853/2004 as read in either case with paragraph 5 of Chapter II of Section I of Annex III to that Regulation (food business operators to ensure that slaughterhouses in which domestic ungulates are slaughtered have lockable facilities for the refrigerated storage of detained meat and separate lockable facilities for the storage of meat declared unfit for human consumption) and the related requirements are set out in new Schedule 3A (new regulation 17 (5)); b Article 3(1) or 4(1)(a) of Regulation (EC) No. 853/2004 as read in either case with paragraph 5 of Chapter II of Section II of Annex III to that Regulation (food business operators to ensure that slaughterhouses in which poultry or lagomorphs are slaughtered have lockable facilities for the refrigerated storage of detained meat and separate lockable facilities for the storage of meat declared unfit for human consumption) and the related requirements are set out in new Schedule 3B (new regulation 17(6)); c Article 3(1) or 4(1)(a) of Regulation (EC) No. 853/2004 as read in either case with paragraph 6 of Chapter II of Section I of Annex III to that Regulation (food business operators to ensure that slaughterhouses in which domestic ungulates are slaughtered have a separate place with appropriate facilities for the cleaning, washing and disinfection of means of transport for livestock unless the competent authority permits them not to have such places and official authorised places and facilities exist nearby) and the related requirements are set out in new Schedule 3C (new regulation 17(7)); d Article 3(1) or 4(1)(a) of Regulation (EC) No. 853/2004 as read in either case with paragraph 6(b) of Chapter II of Section II of Annex III to that Regulation (food business operators to ensure that slaughterhouses in which poultry or lagomorphs are slaughtered have a separate place with appropriate facilities for the cleaning, washing and disinfection of means of transport unless officially authorised places and facilities exist nearby) and the related requirements are set out in new Schedule 3D (new regulation 17(8)). These Regulations also revoke the Food Hygiene (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2007 (regulation 3). These Regulations contain certain provisions which constitute a “technical regulation” within the meaning of Directive 98/34/EC laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations. The provisions were notified in draft to the European Commission in accordance with that Directive. 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), 6thFloor, 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”
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