UK Offence Report

Offences relating to tetrachloroethylene in olive oil

regulation 3(1) of The Tetrachloroethylene in Olive Oil (Scotland) Regulations 1989

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

1 A person who contravenes Article

1 of the Commission Regulation (which prohibits the retail sale of oil with

a tetrachloroethylene content of more than 0.1 milligram per kilogram) commits an offence under this regulation.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 3(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 Article 1 of the Commission Regulation (which prohibits the retail sale of oil with a tetrachloroethylene content of more than 0.1 milligram per kilogram).
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Tetrachloroethylene in Olive Oil (Scotland) Regulations 1989, 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
£2,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
1 year

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland.

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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Tetrachloroethylene in Olive Oil (Scotland) Revocation Regulations 2000
Revoked on
30 September 2000
Made
11 May 1989
In force from
14 June 1989
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

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 apply to Scotland only, make provision for the enforcement of Article 1 of Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 1860/88 on the establishment of special marketing standards for olive oil (OJ No. L166, 1.7.88, p.16). Article 1 of the Commission Regulation provides that olive oils and olive-pomace oils with a tetrachloroethylene content of more than 0.1 milligram per kilogram may not be offered for retail sale. The Regulations also prescribe the method of analysis to be used in determining the tetrachloroethylene content as that set out in Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 1058/77 (OJ No. L128, 24.5.77, p.6) on the characteristics of olive oil, as amended by Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 1858/88 (OJ No. L166, 1.7.88, p.10). However, until 31st October 1989 other methods giving results compatible with that method may be used where those methods, before being used, have been communicated to the Commission by the Member States concerned.

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