UK Offence Report

Movement of a controlled wine-sector product

regulation 22(3) of The Common Agricultural Policy (Wine) Regulations 1992

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

3 Any person who fails to comply with an undertaking given by him for the purposes of regulation

10 shall be 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to do something the instrument requires
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

against any person for an offence under these Regulations, it shall be a defence for that person to prove that he took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid committing the offence.

What would breach regulation 22(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 fails to comply with an undertaking given by him for the purposes of regulation 10.
  2. Not doing what the provision requires under the Common Agricultural Policy (Wine) Regulations 1992, by the time it requires it to be done.
  3. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£1,000
Standard scale
Level 4
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 4 value when the instrument came into force (1992-04-02); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean £2500.

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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Common Agricultural Policy (Wine) Regulations 1993
Revoked on
1 April 1993
Made
11 March 1992
In force from
2 April 1992
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations, which apply throughout the United Kingdom and come into force on 2nd April 1992, provide for the enforcement of EEC Regulations (as specified in Schedules 1 and 2) concerned with the production and marketing of wine and related products. They revoke and re-enact with amendments the provisions of the Common Agricultural Policy (Wine) Regulations 1990 (S.I.1990/1363). In addition to drafting amendments, the Regulations make the following changes of substance– a the definition of “authorised officer” has been extended to include a person other than an officer of an enforcement authority (regulation 2(1)); b the Regulations have been extended to include aromatized wines (regulations 2(1), and (2), 21(1) and Part IX of Schedule 2); c conditions have been specified for the use of geographical ascriptions to designate table wines (regulation 5); d an authorised officer entering any land or vehicle is allowed to take with him other persons (regulation 8(4)); e for the purposes of any court proceedings, the analysis and examination ofsamples is to be carried out by a food analyst or a food examiner, as defined in the Food Safety Act 1990 (1990 c. 16) in relation to England, Wales and Scotland and in the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 (S.I.1991/762 (N.I.7) in relation to Northern Ireland (regulation 12); and f provision has been made for the production in the United Kingdom of quality wines psr in accordance with Council Regulation (EEC) No. 823/87 (OJ No. L84, 27.3.87, p.59) and for the enforcement of the provisions of that Regulation (regulations 13 to 20, 21(1) and Part II of Schedule 2). The Regulations– i designate competent authorities and a liaison authority for the purposes of enforcement (regulation 3); ii define “medium dry” for the purposes of labelling and description (regulation 4); iii specify conditions for the use of geographical ascriptions for the designation of table wine (regulation 5); iv exempt certain products from provisions relating to information required on labels (regulation 6); v permit the planting for certain purposes of vine varieties whose planting would otherwise be prohibited (regulation 7); vi provide for powers of inspection and enforcement (regulation 8); vii authorise controls on the movement of wine sector products (regulations 9 and 10); viii relieve authorised officers of personal liability for acts done by them in execution of the Regulations (regulation 11); ix confer on courts before which proceedings are brought powers in relation to the analysis and examination of samples (regulation 12); x describe Southern Counties and Northern Counties as the specified regions in the United Kingdom for producing quality wines psr (regulation 14); xi specify the list of vine varieties, minimum natural alcoholic strength, maximum yield per hectare, analytical test and an additional term of designation for use, in the production of quality wine psr and permit the production of such wine in areas of immediate proximity to the specified regions (regulations 15 to 20); and xii prescribe offences and penalties (regulations 21 to 24). The Schedules have been revised and brought up to date so as to include references to relevant Regulations of the European Economic Community which have been adopted since the Common Agricultural Policy (Wine) Regulations 1990 came into force and to delete references to Regulations which have been repealed or superseded or have become redundant. In Schedule 1 each Regulation is given is given the title which appears in the Official Journal except in cases where the title refers to a Regulation that has been repealed or superseded. In such a case the title given in Schedule 1 refers to the superseding Regulation and the title in the Official Journal is given in a footnote.

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