UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 6 of The Notification of Marketing of Food for Particular Nutritional Uses (England) Regulations 2007 (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

6 If any person without reasonable excuse contravenes regulation 3(1) or regulation 4(4) or (5), he 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

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.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

6 If any person without reasonable excuse contravenes regulation 3(1) or regulation 4(4) or (5), he shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

What would breach regulation 6?

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 Notification of Marketing of Food for Particular Nutritional Uses (England) Regulations 2007, 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
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (2007-03-01); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean an unlimited fine.

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
20 January 2007
In force from
1 March 2007
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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations, which apply in relation to England only, implement Articles 9 and 11 of Council Directive 89/398/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to foodstuffs intended for particular nutritional uses, (OJ No. L186, 30.6.1989, p.27), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No. 1882/2003 (OJ No. L284, 31.10.2003, p.1). The Regulations concern foods which, owing to their special composition or manufacturing process, are clearly distinguishable from foods for normal consumption, and which are marketed as suitable for categories of consumers with disturbed digestive processes or metabolism or in a special physiological condition, or for infants or young children in good health, but which are neither covered nor to be covered by other Directives on specific types of foodstuffs for particular nutritional uses (the definition of “PNU food” in regulation 2(1) refers). These Regulations— prohibit the sale of such products unless the requirements of Article 9 of the Directive (notification to competent authorities of such products) have been complied with (regulation3); and enable the Agency by written declaration to suspend or restrict trade in products intended for a particular nutritional use where it has detailed grounds for establishing that the product does not comply with Article1(2) of the Directive (requirements for foodstuffs for particular nutritional uses) or endangers human health (regulation4). Enforcement responsibilities, offences and penalties and application of provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 are set out in regulations 5, 6 and 7 of these Regulations. These Regulations also revoke the Notification of Marketing of Food for Particular Nutritional Uses (England and Wales) Regulations 2002 (S.I. 2002/333) in so far as they apply to England (regulation 8). Labelling provisions of the Directive are implemented in the Food Labelling Regulations 1996 (S.I. 1996/1499). A full regulatory impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business has been prepared and placed in the library of each House of Parliament together with a transposition note setting out how the main elements of Articles9 and 11 of the Directive are transposed in these Regulations. Copies may be obtained from the Nutrition Division of the Food Standards Agency, Aviation House, 125 Kingsway, London WC2B 6NH.

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