UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Food Irradiation Provisions (England) Regulations 2000

the instrument as a whole of The Food Irradiation Provisions (England) Regulations 2000 (revoked)

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 Irradiation Provisions (England) Regulations 2000 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
21 August 2000
In force from
20 September 2000
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 give effect in England to the provisions of— Directive 1999/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the approximation of the laws of the Member States concerning foods and food ingredients treated with ionising radiation (OJ No. L66, 13.3.99, p. 16); and Directive 1999/3/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of a Community list of foods and food ingredients treated with ionising radiation (OJ No. L66, 13.3.99, p. 24). These Regulations give effect to the above provisions by amending the following Regulations in so far as they extend to England— the Food (Control of Irradiation) Regulations 1990 (S.I. 1990/2490), as amended; and the Food Labelling Regulations 1996 (S.I. 1996/1499), as amended. The Food (Control of Irradiation) Regulations 1990 and the Food Labelling Regulations 1996 extend to the whole of Great Britain. The substantive amendments to the Food (Control of Irradiation) Regulations 1990 are as follows— definitions of Directives 1999/2/EC and 1999/3/EC are inserted into regulation 2(1) (regulation 3(a)); the definition of “ionising radiation” in regulation 2(1) is amended (regulation 3(b)); a new regulation, 6A, requiring the labelling of non-consumer foods which are subjected to ionising radiation, is inserted (regulation 6); the text of regulation 8 (defence in relation to exports) is revised (regulation 8). The defence now only operates in relation to food intended for export to a country which is not a member of the European Community; the particulars specified in paragraph 1 of Part I of Schedule 1 (particulars to be sent to the licensing authority by a person applying for an irradiation licence) are amended (regulation 9); the matters set out in paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 1 (matters the licensing authority has to take into account in deciding whether to grant or to refuse to grant an irradiation licence) are revised (regulation 10); the terms and conditions set out in Part II of Schedule 1 (terms and conditions to be included in irradiation licences) are varied (regulation 11); the licensing authority and the licensee are given the power to agree a variation of the term of an irradiation licence inserted by virtue of paragraph 4 of Part II of Schedule 1 (regulation 12); the power to extend an irradiation licence currently found in Part IV of Schedule 1 is revoked (regulation 13); a revised paragraph 2 of Part VI of Schedule 1 (which specifies the amount of each charge referred to in that Schedule) is substituted for the existing paragraph 2 of that Part, which also specifies the amount of each charge referred to in Schedule 1 (regulation 14(a)); paragraph 3(b) of Part VI of Schedule 1 is amended to vary the maximum sums which fall to be paid in any one year in respect of the inspections referred to in regulation 9(3) (regulation 14(b)); and a revised Schedule 2 (relating to the import of food) is substituted for the existing Schedule so numbered (which also deals with the import of food) (regulation 15). These Regulations also make some consequential amendments to the Food (Control of Irradiation) Regulations 1990. The amendments to the Food Labelling Regulations 1996 are— a definition of Directive 1999/2/EC is inserted into regulation 2(1) (regulation 18(a)); the definition of “ionising radiation” in regulation 2(1) is amended (regulation 18(b)); the exemption in regulation 3(1) for food brought into Great Britain in certain circumstances from another member State or an EEA state is adjusted so as to require such food to comply (where applicable) with Directive 1999/2/EC (regulation 19); a revised sub-paragraph (b) of regulation 15(4) (providing an exception to the requirement that the names of the ingredients of a compound ingredient used in the preparation of a food have to be given in the list of ingredients of the food) is substituted for the existing sub-paragraph (b) of regulation 15(4) (regulation 20); regulation 26 (small packages and certain indelibly marked bottles) is amended to require certain food which, although exempted from the requirement to be marked or labelled with a list of ingredients, nevertheless contains an ingredient which has been irradiated, to be marked and labelled accordingly (regulation 21); regulation 35 (which imposes a general requirement as to the manner of marking or labelling of certain food) is so amended that the alternative to that requirement contained at the end of that regulation is modified in the case of a specified category of that food which has been irradiated (regulation 22); regulation 36 (which imposes a requirement as to the manner of marking or labelling of certain other food) is so amended that— the application of paragraphs (2) to (4) of that regulation (which permit the use of alternative labelling in the case of certain food which has been or contains an ingredient which has been irradiated) is restricted to food which is prepared for patients requiring sterile diets under medical supervision, and in the case of the sale of food to which regulation 23 or 27 of S.I. 1996/1499 applies which has been irradiated (other than food which is prepared for patients requiring sterile diets under medical supervision), the commercial documents relating to the food must in all cases indicate that it has been irradiated (regulation 23); and the defence in relation to exports (regulation 47) is updated to include a reference to Directive 1999/2/EC (regulation 24). A regulatory impact assessment, which includes a compliance cost assessment of the effect that these Regulations have on business costs, has been prepared and placed in the Library of each House of Parliament. Copies may be obtained from the Novel Foods Division of the Food Standards Agency, Ergon House, PO Box 31037, Horseferry Road, London SW1P 3WG.

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