UK Offence Report

Offences relating to consumer information

regulation 3(1) of The Fish Labelling (England) Regulations 2003

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

1 Any person who, in contravention of Article 4.1 of Regulation 104/2000 (consumer information) as read with Regulation 2065/2001, offers for retail sale to the final consumer any of the products to which that Article applies shall be guilty of an offence and 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 3(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 Fish Labelling (England) Regulations 2003, 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
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
Not determined
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

the level is stated but no money value is given: this instrument extends outside the United Kingdom, where the standard scale set by s.122(1) of the Sentencing Act 2020 does not run.

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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Fish Labelling (England) Regulations 2010 (revoked)
Revoked on
6 April 2010
Made
26 February 2003
In force from
28 March 2003
Extent
E

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 extend to England only, provide for the execution and enforcement of Title 1, Chapter 2 of Council Regulation (EC) 104/2000 on the common organisation of the markets in fishery and aquaculture products as applied by Commission Regulation (EC) 2065/2001 laying down detailed rules on the application of Council Regulation (EC) 104/2000 as regards informing consumers about fishery and aquaculture products. Title 1 of Chapter 2 of Council Regulation (EC) 104/2000 imposes requirements regarding the provision of information about the commercial designation, production method and catch area of certain fishery and aquaculture products offered for retail sale to the final consumer. It further provides for Member States to draw up and publish a list of commercial designations for at least the species listed in Annexes I to IV of the Regulation. Commission Regulation (EC) 2065/2001 describes in more detail the information to be provided to consumers and the exemptions that may be allowed. It also provides for the necessary information to be provided at each stage of the marketing process. These Regulations: a provide a list, as regards England, of the commercial designations required to be drawn up by the United Kingdom (regulation 4 and the Schedule) and further provide for the granting of provisional commercial designations (regulation 8); b make provision as to the relaxation of the requirements in certain circumstances in relation to information about the production method (regulation 5); in the case of direct sales of small quantities to consumers by fishermen or aquaculture producers (regulation 6) and with regard to the inclusion of additional information about catch area (regulation 7); c create offences and prescribe penalties (regulation 3), specify enforcement authorities (regulation 9) and incorporate specified provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 (regulation 10); d revoke the fish labelling requirements set out in paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 to the Food Labelling Regulations 1996 in relation to England (regulation 11). A Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared and placed in the Library of each House of Parliament. Copies may be obtained from Food Labelling Division, 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