UK Offence Report

Offences etc

regulation 7(1) of The Food Safety (Fishery Products on Fishing Vessels) 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 A person who contravenes regulation 3(1) or regulation 3(2) shall be guilty of an offence under these Regulations and be liable—

a on summary conviction, to

a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum;

b on conviction on indictment, to

a fine or imprisonment for

a term not exceeding two years or both.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 7(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 regulation 3(1) or regulation 3(2).
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Food Safety (Fishery Products on Fishing Vessels) 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
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
18 December 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 relate to the implementation of Council Directive 91/493/EEC of 22nd July 1991 (“the first Directive”), laying down health conditions for the production and placing on the market of fishery products and the implementation of Council Directive 92/48/EEC of 16th June 1992 (“the second Directive”), laying down the minimum hygiene rules applicable to fishery products caught on board certain vessels in accordance with Article 3(1)(a)(i) of the first Directive. One of the requirements of the first Directive is that fishery products have been caught and handled on board vessels in accordance with hygiene rules concerning design, equipment and its operation, established by the Council. The second Directive establishes those rules by specifying two lists of conditions. Annex I of the second Directive establishes the general hygiene conditions applicable to fishery products on board fishing vessels generally and Annex II of that Directive establishes additional hygiene conditions applicable to such vessels designed and equipped to preserve fishery products for more than twenty four hours. These provisions are implemented by regulations 2 and 3 of, and the Schedule to, the Regulations. The second Directive also provides for Member States to grant a derogation in respect of certain of the additional requirements (relating to temperature recording equipment, its operation and related records) provided that an application for the derogation is made before 31st December 1992 (see regulation 4(1)). Regulations 4 and 5 provide for these derogations. The Regulations provide that the Ministers shall maintain the list of vessels required by point 9 of Annex II (see regulation 6). Contravention of regulation 3(1) and (2) is an offence and various provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 are applied for the purposes of the Regulations (see regulation 7). The Regulations are to be enforced in England and Wales by district councils, London borough councils and the Common Council of the City of London, in Scotland by district and islands councils, and in the Isles of Scilly by the Council of the Isles of Scilly, except within the area of port health authorities or port local authorities, where they are instead to be enforced by those authorities (see regulation 8). The Regulations also make transitional provision in connection with the determination of applications for derogations (see regulation 9). ISBN0 11 025259 4

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 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