UK Offence Report

3 Any person who contravenes regulation 7(1) or (2) shall be guilty of an offence triable summarily and…

regulation 8(3) of The Food Premises (Registration) Regulations 1991

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

3 Any person who contravenes regulation 7(1) or (2) shall be guilty of an offence triable summarily and liable on conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

3 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 8(3)?

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 regulation 7(1) or (2).
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Food Premises (Registration) Regulations 1991, 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
Not determined
Maximum fine
£400
Standard scale
Level 3
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 3 value when the instrument came into force (1992-02-01); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean £1000.

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
13 December 1991
In force from
1 February 1992
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 provide for the registration of food premises (including vehicles and other moveable structures) by food authorities. Regulation 2 and Schedules 1, 2 and 3 set out the criteria for registration, the principal criterion being that the premises are used for the purposes of a food business on five or more days in any period of five weeks. Regulation 3 exempts various categories of premises, those used only for certain purposes, some premises already required to be registered or licensed under other legislation, most vehicles and some domestic premises used for the purposes of a food business. The procedure for registration, the content of the register and the form of application for registration are prescribed (regulations 4 and 5 and Schedule 4). Provision is made enabling the public to inspect the register after 1st May 1992, and to be supplied with copies of entries, subject to paying any charge imposed by the authority (regulation 5(4) and (5)). A supplementary record, not open to the public is to be kept and made available for inspection by police officers and authorised officers of enforcement authorities (other than the Commissioners of Customs and Excise) (regulation 6). Provision is made for the notification of changes in information contained in the register, and for the consequent amendment of the register and the supplementary record (regulation 7). Criminal offences are created in relation to the use of unregistered premises, permitting the use of unregistered premises, failing to notify a change in registered particulars, furnishing false information and disclosing information from the supplementary record otherwise than in the performance of a duty or as provided for by the Regulations (regulation 8). The Regulations are to be enforced, in England and Wales, by district and London borough councils, the Common Council of the City of London and the Council of the Isles of Scilly, and in Scotland by district and islands area councils, except in relation to premises in respect of which a port health authority, or, in Scotland, a port local authority, has assigned to it the functions of a food authority (regulation 9). The Regulations contain consequential provisions enabling shrimp- and prawn-peelers working at home, whose premises are registered under section 16 of the Food Act 1984, to continue doing so until 1 May 1992, and thereafter if they register their premises under these Regulations (regulation 10(1) and (2)). They also provide for voluntary registration before the Regulations come fully into force (regulation 10(3), (4), (5) and (6)).

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