UK Offence Report

Consequential modifications to the Milk and Dairies (General) Regulations 1959

article 11(11) of The Food Safety Act 1990 (Consequential Modifications) (England and Wales) Order 1990

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

6 An authority other than the Minister may require

a person who applies to them for registration as

a dairyman to give to them, before his application is considered, information as to whether he is, or has been, registered as

a dairyman, whether by them or the Minister or some other authority, and if an applicant who is so required gives to the authority any information which is false in any material respect, he is guilty of an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
making a false or misleading statement
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

more breaches. 4 In any prosecution under this regulation, it is a defence for the holder of the licence to prove (either as to the breach for which he is being prosecuted or as to the earlier breach relied on for the purposes of paragraph (3) above, unless it is one under which he has been convicted of such an offence)— a that neither he nor any servant or agent of his—

What would breach article 11(11)?

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. Entering a figure on a form or return that is known to be wrong under the Food Safety Act 1990 (Consequential Modifications) (England and Wales) Order 1990.
  2. Leaving out something the form asks for, where the omission is what makes the answer misleading.
  3. Producing a document to an official that has been altered since it was issued.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£2,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

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
Status not determined
Made
10 December 1990
In force from
1 January 1991
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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order amends various Orders and Regulations applying to England and Wales which refer to the Food and Drugs Act 1955 and the Food Act 1984. The 1955 Act was consolidated by the 1984 Act, which has now been largely repealed by the Food Safety Act 1990. The Order amends Regulations referring to the 1955 Act and the 1984 Act. It amends Regulations defining food so that they are consistent with the new definition in the 1990 Act, and changes references to food and drugs authorities and (where necessary) local authorities to food authorities as defined in that Act. Where Regulations apply provisions of the earlier Acts, they are amended so that the provisions of the 1990 Act are applied. Amendments are made to Regulations relating to imports and meat, and Regulations relating to milk are amended so that provisions contained in the 1984 Act concerning milk are now in those Regulations. Port Health Authority Orders are amended so that they refer to the 1990 Act. Necessary miscellaneous textual amendments are made to Regulations having effect under the 1990 Act which is applied (with modifications) to the Isles of Scilly in place of the 1984 Act.

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