UK Offence Report

Application of various provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990

regulation 8(3) of The Drinking Water in Containers 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

3 Section 9 (inspection and seizure of suspect food) of the Act shall apply to drinking water which it is an offence to bottle or sell under these Regulations as it applies to food which fails to comply with food safety requirements.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 8(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 it is an offence to bottle or sell under these Regulations as it applies to food which fails to comply with food safety requirements.
  2. Selling the goods under the Drinking Water in Containers Regulations 1994 where the instrument prohibits the sale outright.
  3. Supplying without carrying out a check the instrument requires first, even where the sale would otherwise be lawful.
  4. Offering for sale counts as well as selling: displaying stock is enough where the provision reaches an offer.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (1994-04-01); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean an unlimited fine.

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 March 1994
In force from
1 April 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, which apply to Great Britain, implement the provisions of Council Directive 80/778/EEC (OJ No. L 229, 30.8.80, p. 11) relating to the quality of water intended for human consumption, in relation to drinking water which is bottled or sold in a bottle (as defined in regulation 2). These Regulations do not apply to natural mineral waters or medicinal products (regulation 3). The Regulations— a prescribe the quality standards for drinking water sold in a bottle and provide that the bottling or sale of drinking water which fails to comply with any of those standards is an offence (regulation 4); b provide a defence to a person who proves that the drinking water in respect of which the offence is alleged to have been committed was intended for export and complied with the importing country’s domestic legislation corresponding to that alleged offence (regulation 5); c prescribe penalties upon conviction of an offence (regulation 6); d require the food authorities to enforce the Regulations (regulation 7); e apply specified provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 (regulation 8). A copy of the Compliance Cost Assessment made for these Regulations has been placed in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament and copies can be obtained from the Consumer Protection Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food at Ergon House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR.

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 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 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