UK Offence Report

Offences and penalty

regulation 8(1) of The Eggs (Marketing Standards) Regulations 1995

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 Any person who

a fails to comply with any requirement properly made to him by an authorised officer of the Minister or of

a food authority under these Regulations, or

b contravenes or fails to comply with any Community provision, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

5 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 comply with a notice or direction
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(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. Being served with a notice under the Eggs (Marketing Standards) Regulations 1995 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  2. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  3. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

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 (1995-07-10); 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
14 June 1995
In force from
10 July 1995
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, supersede the Eggs (Marketing Standards) Regulations 1985 and make provision for the enforcement and execution of specified regulations of the European Communities which relate to marketing standards for shell eggs and to the production and marketing of eggs for hatching and of farmyard poultry chicks. The principal changes made by these Regulations to the 1985 Regulations are the introduction of more detailed labelling requirements following the further amendment of Council Regulation EEC No. 1907/90 and Commission Regulation EC No. 1274/91. (The amending instruments are specified in the Schedule, items 1 and 2). The Regulations also imelement the public health conditions in relation to the sale of shell eggs and to the use of eggs in catering kitchens laid down by Council Decision 94/371/EC. These Regulations are made under and incorporate provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990. The Regulations— a implement the public health conditions laid down by Council Decision 94/371/EC (regulation 3); b designate the authorities who are to enforce the Community provisions (regulation 4); c give authorised officers of the Minister specified powers (regulation 5); d give the Minister power to require specified persons to keep records and supply information (regulation 7); e prescribe the form of the official mark which may be used under the Community provisions (regulation 7); f create an offence and prescribe a penalty (regulation 8); g provide that descriptions and marks applied in pursuance of a Community provision shall not be trade descriptions under the Trade Descriptions Act 1968 (regulation 9). A compliance cost assessment of the effect that these Regulations would have on the cost of business is available from: Pigs, Eggs and poultry Dviision Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Room 201 Whitehall Place (East Block) London SW1A 2HH.

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”; the provision states liability on summary conviction; the provision states a penalty in older drafting
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