UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 4(1) of The Foods for Specific Groups (Infant Formula and Follow-on Formula) (Scotland) Regulations 2020

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 regulation 6(3),

a person is commits an offence if they fail to comply with any specified EU law requirement.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to comply with a notice or direction
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(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 fail to comply with any specified EU law requirement.
  2. Being served with a notice under the Foods for Specific Groups (Infant Formula and Follow-on Formula) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  3. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  4. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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
14 January 2020
In force from
Not determined
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, which extend to Scotland only, make provision to enforce Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/127 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 609/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the specific compositional and information requirements for infant formula and follow-on formula and as regards requirements on information relating to infant and young child feeding (“the Delegated Regulation”). These Regulations make provision for a purpose mentioned in section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972 and references in them to provisions of the Delegated Regulation are to be construed as references to such provisions as they are amended from time to time. Definitions of expressions used in the Delegated Regulation are contained in Article 2 of Regulation (EU) No 609/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council on food intended for infants and young children, food for special medical purposes, and total diet replacement for weight control (“the EU Regulation”). Expressions used in these Regulations which are defined in Article 2 of the EU Regulation are to be construed in accordance with the definitions in that Article, as it is amended from time to time. Regulation 3 outlines that each food authority must execute and enforce these Regulations within its area. A “food authority” in relation to Scotland is defined in section 5(2) of the Food Safety Act 1990 (c.16) as a council constituted under section 2 of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 (c.39). Regulation 4 provides that subject to transitional arrangements, it is an offence under these Regulations to fail to comply with any of the requirements of the Delegated Regulation which are specified in column 1 of the table in schedule 1. Regulation 4 also provides the penalty for breaching any of these requirements. Regulation 5 introduces schedule 2, which applies provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 for the purposes of these Regulations. Regulation 6 outlines transitional arrangements, whereby infant formula or follow-on formula which has been placed on the market or labelled prior to the date of application of the Delegated Regulation (22 February 2020 or, in the case of infant formula or follow-on formula manufactured from protein hydrolysates, 22 February 2021) can continue to be marketed until stocks are exhausted, provided that certain requirements are met. Regulation 6 and schedule 2 provide for revocations in consequence of these Regulations. Regulation 7 makes an amendment which arises as a consequence of those revocations.

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 “commits 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