UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 5 of The Animal Feed (Basic Safety Standards) (Scotland) Regulations 2018

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

5 A person who contravenes regulation

3 is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding Level

5 on the standard scale or to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding three months.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Legal burden on the defendant

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 gives a defence the defendant must prove, on the balance of probabilities. A legal burden of that kind can be read down to a merely evidential one under section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 where placing it on the defendant would be disproportionate (R v Lambert [2001] UKHL 37; Sheldrake v DPP [2004] UKHL 43).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

The defence, as drafted

cause beyond the accused’s control; and b that the accused took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of such an offence by the accused or any other person under the accused’s control. 3 If in any case the defence provided by paragraph (2) involves an allegation that the commission of the offence was due to the act or default of anothe

What would breach regulation 5?

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 regulation 3.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Animal Feed (Basic Safety Standards) (Scotland) Regulations 2018, 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
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
3 months

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
16 January 2018
In force from
6 February 2018
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 transpose in Scotland, in relation to animal feed, Article 21 of Council Directive 2013/59/Euratom laying down basic safety standards for protection against the dangers arising from exposure to ionising radiation, and repealing Directives 89/618/Euratom, 90/641/Euratom, 96/29/Euratom, 97/42 Euratom and 2003/122 Euratom (OJ L 13, 17.1.14, p.1). Regulation 3 sets out that a person must not deliberately add a radioactive substance in the production of feed. Regulation 4 sets out that a person must not import or export any animal feed to which a radioactive substance has been intentionally added during production. Regulation 5 provides that it is an offence to fail to comply with Regulation 3, punishable on conviction by a fine or imprisonment not exceeding 3 months. Regulation 6 sets out defences to offences set out in regulation 5 and under section 74A(3) of the Agriculture Act 1970. Regulation 7 sets out that it is the duty of each feed authority to enforce these Regulations in its area. Regulation 8 amends schedule 2 of the Official Feed and Food Controls (Scotland) Regulations 2009 (the “2009 Regulations”) (S.S.I. 2009/446). The amendment designates these Regulations as “relevant feed law” for the purposes of the 2009 Regulations. Regulation 9 amends the Feed (Hygiene and Enforcement) (Scotland) Regulations 2005 (the “2005 Regulations”) (S.S.I. 2005/608). The amendment designates the 2005 Regulations as “specified feed law” for the purposes of the 2005 regulations so that, among other things, authorised officers may serve improvement notices for failure to comply with regulations 3 and 4 of these Regulations and a person aggrieved by a decision to serve an improvement notice may appeal to the sheriff court. The amendment also allows, if particular requirements are complied with, a court to impose a prohibition order/emergency prohibition order on a feed business operator for failure to comply with regulations 3 or 4, and allows authorised officers to enter non-dwellings to investigate non-compliance with regulation 3 or 4 and to inspect, take samples, and to detain or seize products.

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 0.92.

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