UK Offence Report

New section 73A

regulation 7 of The Agriculture Act 1970 Amendment Regulations 1982

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

7 After section

73 there shall be inserted as section 73A the following new section— 73A

1 Subject to the provisions of this section, any person who—

a sells any material for use as

a feeding stuff, or

b has on his premises, for the purpose of selling it in the course of trade for such use, any material which is ready for sale, shall be guilty of an offence if the material is found, or if

a sampled portion of the material is shown by an analysis of the sample taken from it, to be unwholesome for or to be dangerous to animals of any description prescribed for the purpose of the definition of “feeding stuff” in section 66(1) of this Act, or to be unwholesome for or to be dangerous to, pet animals or, through the consumption of the products of an animal fed with the material, dangerous to human beings.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
selling or supplying something the instrument restricts
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 7?

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. Selling the goods under the Agriculture Act 1970 Amendment Regulations 1982 where the instrument prohibits the sale outright.
  2. Supplying without carrying out a check the instrument requires first, even where the sale would otherwise be lawful.
  3. Offering for sale counts as well as selling: displaying stock is enough where the provision reaches an offer.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£400
Maximum prison (summary)
3 months

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
15 July 1982
In force from
16 July 1982
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.

1. These regulations form part of a series of regulations intended to replace completely the Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs Regulations 1973 (S.I. 1973/1521), as amended. 2. These regulations amend Part IV of the Agriculture Act 1970 (the legislation under which fertilisers and feeding stuffs regulations are made) to implement, or enable the implementation of, certain provisions in Directive 77/101/EEC on the marketing of straight feeding stuffs as amended Directive 79/373/EEC on the marketing of compound feeding stuffs as amended, Directive 74/63/EEC on the fixing of maximum permitted levels for undesirable substances and products in feeding stuffs as amended, and Directive 70/524/EEC concerning additives in feeding stuffs as amended. 3. Regulation 4 amends section 66(1) of the 1970 Act to introduce a definition of “pet animal”, and to extend the meaning of “feeding stuff” so that it includes pet food. 4. Regulation 5 inserts a new subsection (1A) in section 68 enabling regulations to provide for the inclusion of permitted particulars in a statutory statement given by a seller of feeding stuffs, as well as the particulars required under subsection (1). 5. Regulation 6 extends section 73(1) (which prohibits the sale, or possession for sale, of feeding stuffs deleterious to prescribed animals) so as to apply to ingredients deleterious to pet animals or human beings. A consequential amendment has been made to section 73(2), which provides for defences to charges under section 73(1). 6. Regulation 7 adds a new section 73A. This makes it an offence to sell or possess for sale a feeding stuff which is unwholesome for, or a danger to, prescribed animals or pet animals or a danger to human beings. It also provides for defences in certain circumstances to persons charged with such offences.

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