UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Food Safety (Live Bivalve Molluscs and Other Shellfish) (Import Conditions and…

the instrument as a whole of The Food Safety (Live Bivalve Molluscs and Other Shellfish) (Import Conditions and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 1994

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

Contravening this instrument is an offence under sections 10(2), 33 and 35 of the Food Safety Act 1990. The instrument itself contains no offence-creating words.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
importing or exporting without authority
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
Not determined

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.

Classifier’s reasoning: contravention offences of this kind are strict as to the breach; the fault position is governed by the parent Act and was not read from it.

What would breach the instrument as a whole?

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. Moving the goods across the border under the Food Safety (Live Bivalve Molluscs and Other Shellfish) (Import Conditions and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 1994 without the licence the instrument requires.
  2. Holding a licence for one consignment and using it for another.
  3. Sending goods in transit through the United Kingdom, where the provision catches transit as well as import and export.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Set by another provision — the instrument states the penalty by reference to an Act or to another regulation
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

The instrument does not state a penalty itself. It sets one by reference to sections 10(2), 33 and 35 of the Food Safety Act 1990.

the penalty is in the parent Act, not in this instrument.

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
Status not determined
Made
31 October 1994
In force from
21 November 1994
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 create import conditions for live bivalve molluscs and other shellfish which are imported into Great Britain, other than those which are imported from Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands. In the process of so doing, they implement the remaining parts of Council Directive 91/492/EEC laying down the health conditions for the production and placing on the market of live bivalve molluscs which were not implemented by the Food Safety (Live Bivalve Molluscs and Other Shellfish) Regulations 1992 (“the principal Regulations”). These Regulations also implement Council Decision 93/383/EEC on reference laboratories for the monitoring of biotoxins in relation to imported live bivalve molluscs and other shellfish only, as this Decision does not require legislation for its implementation in relation to domestic live bivalve molluscs and other shellfish. Regulation 2 is an interpretation provision. Regulation 3 sets out the conditions under which all live bivalve molluscs and other shellfish must be imported into Great Britain, other than imports from Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands. There are, however, exemptions in relation to private consignments. There are also certain additional requirements in relation to imports of live bivalve molluscs and other shellfish which originate from outside the European Economic Area, and these are contained in regulation 4. These additional requirements include compliance with any approved import conditions which have been agreed by the European Commission with particular non-EEA countries, and reference is made to the only approved import conditions thus far—they relate to Morocco—in Schedule 1. Where no approved import conditions have been agreed, alternative documentary requirements have to be met, and a specimen health certificate is set out in Schedule 3. Regulation 5 and Schedule 4 make various amendments to the principal Regulations. These amendments include a number of technical changes which correct minor errors in the principal Regulations, but there are also some other, more substantive changes. These include: clarification of which areas may be approved as relaying areas; a new power conferred on food authorities which allows them to vary the terms of approvals granted for purification or dispatch centres; some new sample analysis requirements; and new powers which enable Ministers to undertake some microbiological testing, and to require food authorities to carry out certain of their functions. The placing on the market provision in the principal Regulations, regulation 11, has been completely revised so as to accommodate both the new import conditions and products coming from Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands. A new regulation 11A has been added which deals with retention of documents following the splitting or repackaging of consignments, with related amendments being made to Schedules 1 and 6 of the principal Regulations. The application of the principal Regulations is now extended to the territorial waters of the United Kingdom, and a power of entry is conferred both in relation to vessels used for transporting live bivalve molluscs and other shellfish and in relation to off-shore dispatch and purification centres. Regulation 6 stipulates that the import conditions contained in regulations 3 and 4 are to be enforced as health conditions in accordance with the Products of Animal Origin (Import and Export) Regulations 1992, and regulation 7 contains a transitional provision in relation to documentary requirements. Regulation 8 revokes regulation 22(3) of the principal Regulations which purported incorrectly to amend the Conway Mussel Fishery (Amendment) Order 1948 and the Conway Mussel Fishery (Variation) Order 1979. These amendments have now been made by the Conwy Mussel Fishery (Amendment) Regulations 1994.

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 0.70.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.70 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