UK Offence Report

Enforcement, offences and penalties

regulation 6(2) of The Organic Products Regulations 1992

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

2 Any person who contravenes or fails to comply with any of the Specified Community provisions shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction in England and Wales and Scotland to

a fine not exceeding level

5 on the standard scale and on summary conviction in Northern Ireland to

a fine not exceeding £2000.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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; other provisions of the same instrument use a mens rea word while this one does not (the Cundy v Le Cocq contrast).

What would breach regulation 6(2)?

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 or fails to comply with any of the Specified Community provisions.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Organic Products Regulations 1992, 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
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (1992-10-01); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean an unlimited fine.

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
2 September 1992
In force from
1 October 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 apply to the United Kingdom and give effect to the United Kingdom’s obligation to provide for the administration, execution and enforcement of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2092/91 (OJ No. L198, 22.7.91, p.1) on organic production of agricultural products and foodstuffs. Regulation 3 designates Food from Britain as the inspection authority responsible for the inspection system under the Council Regulation and the approval of private inspection bodies. Producers, importers and processors concerned in the distribution of organic products covered by the Council Regulation are subject to this inspection system. For the purposes of enforcing Articles 9.9 and 10.3 of the Council Regulation (irregularities and infringements of the rules on labelling and production of organic products) Food from Britain or the private inspection body as appropriate must give the relevant local authority the information the local authority needs to enforce the organic labelling provisions in Article 5 of the Council Regulation. Regulation 2 contains a definition of local authority. Regulation 4 amends the Agricultural Marketing Act 1983, under which Food from Britain is established as a corporate body, to extend the functions of Food from Britain so that they include functions under these Regulations. Regulation 5 provides for the payment of contributions to inspection expenses and access to the inspection system, and information to be given by Food from Britain to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to enable him to comply with his obligations under the Council Regulation. Regulation 6 provides that each local authority within its area will enforce the provisions of the Council Regulation specified in the Schedule, contravention of which is an offence subject on conviction in a magistrates court to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale in England, Wales and Scotland and in Northern Ireland to a fine not exceeding £2000. It also applies presumptions relating to sale and human consumption to the execution and enforcement of the Council Regulation, for all organic products under it and those intended for human consumption respectively. Regulations 7 to 9 contain supplementary provisions on enforcement and regulation 10 protects officers acting in good faith.

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