UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 17(1) of The Food Safety (Temperature Control) 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 If any person contravenes regulation 4, 6(2), 8, 10, 11, 13, 14,

15 or 16, he shall be guilty of an offence against these Regulations.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
contravening a requirement of the instrument
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 17(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. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Food Safety (Temperature Control) Regulations 1995, whatever the reason for doing it.
  2. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland.

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
22 August 1995
In force from
15 September 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 implement paragraphs 4 and 5 of Chapter IX of the Annex to Council Directive 93/43/EEC of 14th June 1993 on the hygiene of foodstuffs, as well as containing certain national provisions relating to food temperature control. Regulation 2 is an interpretation provision. Regulation 3 deals with the application of these Regulations: they apply to all stages of food production except primary production, but—subject to an exception which relates to fishery products—they do not apply to the activities of food businesses which are regulated by or under the Regulations listed in regulation 3(2). Part II of the Regulations contains the new food temperature control requirements for England and Wales. Regulation 4 contains a requirement that food which needs to be kept chilled because it is likely to support the growth of pathogenic micro-organisms or the formation of toxins must be kept either at or at below 8°C, although this does not apply to mail order food, which is the subject of a separate offence. There are certain exemptions (regulation 5), and a provision which allows for the upward variation of the standard temperature in appropriate circumstances (regulation 6(1)). Any such variation must, however, be based on a well-founded scientific assessment of the safety of the food at the new temperature (regulation 6(2)). There are also defences which relate to the tolerance periods for which food may be held outside temperature control (regulation 7). Regulation 8 contains a requirement that food which needs to be kept hot in order to control the growth of pathogenic micro-organisms or the formation of toxins must be kept at a minimum temperature of 63°C. There are defences which allow for downward variation of this minimum temperature in appropriate circumstances and for a tolerance period of two hours (regulation 9). Regulation 10 adds a new general temperature control requirement which prohibits keeping perishable foodstuffs at temperatures which would result in a risk to health, and regulation 11 contains a further requirement in relation to the cooling of food. Regulation 12 deals with the evidential value, in certain circumstances, of guides to good hygiene practice. Part III contains the food temperature control requirements for Scotland. Regulations 13 to 15 re-enact with minor and drafting modifications the food temperature control requirements previously contained in the Food Hygiene (Scotland) Regulations 1959, and regulation 16 adds a new general temperature control requirement which prohibits keeping foodstuffs which are likely to support the growth of pathogenic micro-organisms or the formation of toxins at temperatures which would result in a risk to health. Regulation 17 deals with offences and penalties, regulation 18 applies certain provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990, and regulation 19 deals with enforcement issues. Regulation 20 is a revocations provision. The provisions revoked are listed in the Schedule to these Regulations. An assessment of the cost to business of complying with these Regulations has been prepared and copies may be obtained from the Department of Health, Room 630B, Skipton House, 80 London Road, London SE1 6LW, or the Scottish Office Agriculture and Fisheries Department, Room 347, Pentland House, 47 Robb’s Loan, Edinburgh EH14 1TW. A copy has also been placed in the library of each of the Houses of Parliament.

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”
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