UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 16(1) of The Food Safety (Fishery 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

1 If any person contravenes any provision of these regulations specified in paragraph (2) he shall be guilty of an offence against these Regulations.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 16(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. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Food Safety (Fishery Products) Regulations 1992, whatever the reason for doing it.
  2. 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
£5,000
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
11 December 1992
In force from
1 January 1993
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 implement those parts of Council Directive 91/493/EEC of 22nd July 1992 ( “the Directive”) laying down health conditions for the production and placing on the market of fishery products which were not implemented by the Food Safety (Fishery Products) (Derogations) Regulations 1992 ( “the first Regulations”). The whole of the Council Directive is to be implemented by 1st January 1993. The first Regulations provide that factory vessels and establishments and auction and wholesale markets which are concerned with processing fishery products are to be approved only if they meet the requirements of the Directive. Those requirements, relating to equipment, structure and methods of processing, are set out in Chapters I to IV of the Annex to the Directive and specified in the Schedule to the first Regulations. These Regulations also relate to Council Directive 92/48/EEC ( “the Fishing Vessel Directive”) of 16th June 1992 laying down minimum hygiene rules applicable to fishery pro-ducts caught on board certain vessels in accordance with Article 3(1)(a)(i). The Fishing Vessel Directive is implemented by the Food Safety (Fishery Products on Board Fishing Vessels) Regulations 1992 ( “the second Regulations”). The second Regulations provide that fishing vessels are to operate according to conditions of hygiene and in some cases additional conditions of hygiene specified in the Annex to the Fishing Vessel Directive and now specified in the Schedule to the second Regulations. These Regulations impose requirements contained in the Directive in relation to placing fishery products (see regulation 3), aquaculture products (see regulation 5) and bivalve molluscs on the market for human consumption (see regulation 6). They prohibit the placing of specified fishery products which are harmful on the market (see regulation 8), impose requirements concerning gutting (see regulation 4) and the care of fishery products which are to be placed on the market alive (see regulation 7). These Regulations also provide for the approval of factory vessels and establishments if they meet the requirements of the Directive (see regulation 9) and provide for supplementary matters concerned with applications for, and the determination of, applications (see regulation 10). Additionally, the Regulations impose requirements on the proprietors of factory vessels and establishments (see regulation 11) and provide for the registration of certain fishing vessels on which shrimps and molluscs are processed by cooking (see regulation 12). The Regulations exclude from the requirements certain sales of small quantities of fishery products by fishermen and sales to the final consumer (see regulations 2 and 14). The Regulations specify that food authorities are to enforce the Regulations (see regulation 19) and also impose requirements on food authorities to monitor the requirements in the Directive. The Regulations also provide for offences, penalties and the application of specified provisions in the Food Safety Act 1990 (see regulations 16 to 19). The first Regulations are amended (see regulation 20), the Food Hygiene (Docks, Carriers etc) Regulations 1960 are amended (see regulation 21), the Food Hygiene (Markets, Stalls and Delivery Vehicles) Regulations 1966 are amended (see regulation 22), the Food Hygiene (General) Regulations 1970 are amended (see regulation 23) and a transitional provision is included in respect of catching fishery products and the processing of fishery products prior to the date particular regulations come into force (see regulation 24).

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