UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 10(2) of The Beef Bones Regulations 1997

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

2 If any person contravenes—

a paragraph (1) above; or

b any other provision of these Regulations, he shall be guilty of an offence and liable—

i on summary conviction, to

a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding six months or to both; or

ii on conviction on indictment, to

a fine or to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding two years or to both.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 10(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. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Beef Bones Regulations 1997, 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)
6 months
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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2008
Revoked on
26 April 2008
Made
15 December 1997
In force from
16 December 1997
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 Great Britain, make provision under the Food Safety Act 1990 in relation to bones, bone-in beef and other food and ingredients for human consumption derived from bovine animals aged over six months at slaughter. The age of a bovine animal at slaughter is presumed to be over six months in the absence of available records as to its age at slaughter. Expressions used in the Regulations not already defined in the Act are defined for the purposes of the Regulations in regulation 2(1). Regulation 3(1) prohibits the sale of bone-in beef to the ultimate consumer and regulation 3(2) prohibits the use of bone-in beef in the preparation of any food or ingredient for sale direct to the ultimate consumer. Regulation 4 contains prohibitions in relation to the sale of bones and the use of bones in the preparation of food and ingredients for sale for human consumption. Regulation 5 prohibits the sale of food containing ingredients consisting of or derived from bones removed from bone-in beef deboned in Great Britain. It also prohibits the sale of substances derived from those bones for use in the preparation of food and ingredients for sale for human consumption and the use of those substances for that purpose. There is a three month period before this regulation applies to food other than bone-in beef and bones. Regulation 6 prohibits the deboning of bone-in beef in the course of a business for preparation, preparation for sale or sale for human consumption except at food premises. It requires the occupier of food premises to ensure that deboning of bone-in beef at those premises is carried out so as to avoid risk of contamination of food. Regulation 7 imposes requirements in relation to the storage of bones on food premises. Regulation 8 requires bones removed from bone-in beef deboned in Great Britain to be disposed of as if they were animal by-products referred to in Part II of Schedule 1 to the Animal By-Products Order 1992. Regulation 9 requires the occupier of food premises to keep records on the premises relating to any bones removed from bone-in beef, used or stored there. These records must contain sufficient information to ensure that the origin of bones removed from bone-in beef, used or stored at the premises, and any commercial operations previously carried out in relation to the bones (whether or not at those premises and whether or not in Great Britain), can be clearly traced and identified by an authorised officer. Regulation 10 provides offences and penalties and regulation 11 applies provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 for the purposes of the Regulations. Regulation 12 makes provision for the enforcement of the Regulations. A Regulatory Appraisal in relation to these Regulations has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament. Copies can be obtained from the Meat Hygiene Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Ergon House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

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