UK Offence Report

Control of products brought into the United Kingdom from third countries or traded within the European…

regulation 6B(1) of The Feeding Stuffs (Amendment) Regulations 2003

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 Where the competent authority has information indicating that a product presents a serious risk to human or animal health or to the environment, it shall give to the person in charge of the product notice in writing that, until the notice is withdrawn, the product or any specified part of it— a is not to be used in animal nutrition; and b either is not to be removed or is to be removed to a place specified by the authority, and any person who knowingly contravenes the requirements of such a notice shall be guilty of an offence and liable— c on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, and d on conviction on indictment to a fine.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove both that the conduct happened and that it was done with the state of mind the provision names (knowingly).

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: knowingly.

What would breach regulation 6B(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. On these words an offence is committed where a person knowingly contravenes the requirements of such a notice.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Feeding Stuffs (Amendment) Regulations 2003, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. 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

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
3 April 2003
In force from
1 May 2003
Extent
E

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 amend the Feeding Stuffs Regulations 2000 (S.I. 2000/2481, as already amended) which extend largely to England only, the Feeding Stuffs (Enforcement) Regulations 1999 (S.I. 1999/2325, as already amended) which extend to the whole of the United Kingdom and the Feeding Stuffs (Establishments and Intermediaries) Regulations 1999 (S.I. 1999/1872, as already amended) which also extend to the whole of the United Kingdom. Regulations 2 to 6, 13 and 15 of these Regulations extend to England only. Regulations 7 to 12 and 14 extend to the whole of the United Kingdom. These Regulations implement— the second sub-paragraph of Article 8.2 of Council Directive 95/53/EC fixing the principles governing the organisation of official inspections in the field of animal nutrition (OJ No. L265, 8.11.95, p.17); and Directive 2001/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Directive 95/53/EC fixing the principles governing the organisation of official inspections in the field of animal nutrition and Directives 70/524/EC, 96/25/EC and 1999/29/EC on animal nutrition (OJ No. L234, 1.9.2001, p.55). These Regulations also provide for the enforcement of the following Community Regulations— Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1252/2002 concerning the provisional authorisation of a new additive in feedingstuffs (OJ No. L183, 12.7.2002, p.10); Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1876/2002 concerning the provisional authorisation of a new use of an additive in feedingstuffs (OJ No. L284, 22.10.2002, p.7); and Commission Regulation (EC) No. 2188/2002 concerning the provisional authorisation of new uses of additives in feedingstuffs (OJ No. L333, 10.12.2002, p.5). These Regulations— amend the Feeding Stuffs Regulations 2000 by— inserting into regulation 2 a definition of the term “the Enforcement Directive” (regulation 3), making consequential amendments to regulations 7(1) and 25(1) (regulation 4), imposing on those responsible for establishments producing products for animal nutrition an obligation to notify the Food Standards Agency and the relevant local authority, and supply them with specified information, if they have evidence that feed materials which they have imported or put into circulation contain certain undesirable substances at levels above the maximum ones prescribed (regulation 5), and adding three new Commission Regulations to the list of Commission Regulations under which authorisation for the marketing of feed additives has been granted, which is contained in Part IX of the Table to Schedule 3, and making a consequential amendment to the footnote to Part VII of that Table (regulation 6 and the Schedule); and amend the Feeding Stuffs (Enforcement) Regulations 1999 by— updating the definition of the term “Directive 95/53” in regulation 2 by inserting into it a reference to Directive 2001/46/EC (regulation 8(a)), inserting into that regulation a definition of the term “put into circulation” (regulation 8(b)), providing for the enforcement by the competent authority of new regulations 6A and 6B as inserted by regulation 12 of these Regulations (regulation 9), providing that it is the function of the competent authority to determine in which of the ways specified in the indents of Article 8.2 of Directive 95/53/EC a person who has imported from a third country a consignment of products for animal nutrition which does not comply with specified EC controls on animal feed is to deal with the consignment and specifying how that function is to be performed (regulation 10), specifying how the competent authority is to perform its function of determining in which of the ways specified in the indents of Directive 13.1 of Directive 95/53/EC a person who has brought in from the European Community a consignment of products for animal nutrition which does not comply with specified EC controls on animal feed is to deal with the consignment (regulation 11(a)), substituting for the existing regulation 6(6) a provision which requires the competent authority to provide the Food Standards Agency with specified information (regulation 11(b)), inserting a new provision, regulation 6A, which imposes on those responsible for establishments producing products for animal nutrition an obligation to notify the Food Standards Agency and the competent authority, and supply them with specified information, if they have evidence that products for animal nutrition which they have imported or put into circulation do not comply with specified EC controls prescribed in relation to such products (regulation 12), inserting a further new provision, regulation 6B, which requires a competent authority having information that a consignment of products for animal nutrition presents a serious risk to human or animal health or the environment to prohibit its use and control its movement pending further investigation and the authority determining how the consignment should be dealt with (regulation 12), making consequential amendments to specified provisions (regulation 13), and permitting inspectors who have taken samples of materials in the prescribed manner to disclose information obtained in the course of so doing in order to prevent a serious risk to human or animal health on the environment from arising (regulation 14); and make consequential amendments to the Feeding Stuffs (Establishments and Intermediaries) Regulations 1999 (regulation 15). A regulatory impact assessment has been prepared for these Regulations and has been placed in the library of each House of Parliament, together with a transposition note setting out how the second sub-paragraph of Article 8.2 of Directive 95/53/EC and the main elements of Directive 2001/46/EC are transposed into domestic law by these Regulations. Copies may be obtained from the Animal Feed Unit of the Food Standards Agency, Aviation House, 125 Kingsway, London WC2B 6NH.

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 0.92.

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