UK Offence Report

Provision of informational and educational material dealing with the feeding of infants

paragraph 23(4) of SCHEDULE of The Foods for Specific Groups (Infant Formula and Follow-on Formula) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021

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 It is an offence for

a manufacturer or distributor of an infant formula to make

a donation of any informational or educational equipment or materials except in accordance with the following conditions—

a the donation must be made following

a request by the intended recipient,

b the donation must be made with the written authority of the Scottish Ministers or in accordance with guidelines drawn up by the Scottish Ministers,

c the equipment and materials must not be marked or labelled with the name of

a proprietary brand of infant formula, and

d the equipment or materials must be distributed only through the health care system.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 manufacturer
Conduct
breaching the provision
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 manufacturer 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 paragraph 23(4) of SCHEDULE?

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 what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Foods for Specific Groups (Infant Formula and Follow-on Formula) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021.

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
8 March 2021
In force from
26 March 2021
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 Foods for Specific Groups (Infant Formula and Follow-on Formula) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 (S.S.I. 2020/6) (“the 2020 Regulations”) to apply the law that existed before 21 February 2021 in relation to infant formula and follow-on formula manufactured from protein hydrolysates from 26 March 2021 until 22 February 2022. Regulation 2 amends regulation 6 of the 2020 Regulations to disapply regulations 2 to 5 of the 2020 Regulations from infant formula and follow-on formula manufactured from protein hydrolysates. Regulation 2 also inserts a new schedule 4 into the 2020 Regulations. New schedule 4 contains the regulatory regime that applied to infant formula and follow-on formula manufactured from protein hydrolysates prior to 21February 2021. An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.

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