UK Offence Report

Unauthorised application of EEC signs and marks

regulation 14(2) of The Clinical Thermometers (EEC Requirements) Regulations 1993

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

2 Any person who uses for trade, sells or exposes or offers for sale any clinical thermometer which to his knowledge—

a bears any EEC sign or mark which is

a forgery or counterfeit, or which has been transferred from another clinical thermometer or other instrument, or which has been altered or defaced otherwise than under regulation 13; or

b does not comply with the requirements of the Directive by reason of any alteration made to it after any EEC sign or mark was applied to it in accordance with these Regulations, 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
selling or supplying something the instrument restricts
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 14(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. Selling the goods under the Clinical Thermometers (EEC Requirements) Regulations 1993 where the instrument prohibits the sale outright.
  2. Supplying without carrying out a check the instrument requires first, even where the sale would otherwise be lawful.
  3. Offering for sale counts as well as selling: displaying stock is enough where the provision reaches an offer.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

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 Clinical Thermometers (EEC Requirements) (Revocation) Regulations 2015
Revoked on
1 April 2015
Made
29 September 1993
In force from
21 October 1993
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 to the United Kingdom, implement Council Directive No. 76/764/EEC, as amended, relating to clinical mercury–in–glass, maximum reading thermometers. They apply to clinical thermometers designed to measure the internal temperature of humans or animals (regulation 3). The Regulations— a specify the signs of EEC pattern approval and EEC limited pattern approval and the mark of EEC initial verification (regulation 4 and the Schedule); b provide for the free movement in the United Kingdom of clinical thermometers which bear the sign of EEC pattern approval and the mark of EEC initial verification (regulation 5); c provide for the approval by the Secretary of State of bodies to grant EEC pattern approval and to carry out EEC initial verification in respect of clinical thermometers (regulation 6(1) to (5)); d enable approval bodies to charge fees for things done in performance of their functions under the Regulations (regulation 6(6) to (9)); e provide for the grant by approved bodies of EEC pattern approval of clinical thermometers which comply with the Directive (regulation 7); f provide for a sign of EEC pattern approval or EEC limited pattern approval to be affixed to clinical thermometers which conform to the approved pattern (regulation 8); g provide for approved bodies to carry out EEC initial verification of clinical thermometers to determine whether a pattern approval is in force and whether they conform to it and to the requirements of the Directive (regulation 9(1) and (2)); h provide for a mark of EEC initial verification to be affixed to clinical thermometers which conform to the approved pattern and to the requirements of the Directive (regulation 9(3) and (4)); i restrict the making of applications for initial verification where an EEC limited pattern approval is subject to a condition limiting the number of clinical thermometers which may be submitted for initial verification (regulation 10); j prohibit the use for trade of clinical thermometers in respect of which EEC pattern approval has been revoked or has not been extended (regulation 11); k provide for the temporary prohibition of the sale or use of clinical thermometers in respect of which an EEC pattern approval is in force but which reveal in service a defect which makes them unsuitable for their intended use (regulation 12); l enable an inspector to obliterate EEC signs and marks in specified circumstances (regulation 13); m prohibit the unauthorised application of EEC signs and marks (regulation 14); n provide for powers of inspectors, obstruction of inspectors, offences by corporations and the institution of proceedings and specified penalties (regulations 15 to 19).

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