UK Offence Report

Returns and records relating to processing establishments

regulation 13(4) of The Fishery Products (Official Controls Charges) (England) Regulations 2007

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

4 Any proprietor or operator who without reasonable excuse—

a fails to comply with paragraph (1) or (3)(b); or

b fails to comply with

a requirement made under paragraph (3)(a), shall be guilty of an offence and shall be 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
an operator
Conduct
failing to comply with a notice or direction
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 an operator 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

4 Any proprietor or operator who without reasonable excuse— a fails to comply with paragraph (1) or (3)(b); or b fails to comply with a requirement made under paragraph (3)(a), shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

What would breach regulation 13(4)?

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 an operator without reasonable excuse— a fails to comply with paragraph (1) or (3)(b); or b fails to comply with a requirement made under paragraph (3)(a).
  2. Being served with a notice under the Fishery Products (Official Controls Charges) (England) Regulations 2007 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  3. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  4. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

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 (2008-01-01); 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
29 November 2007
In force from
1 January 2008
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 apply in relation to England only. They revoke and replace the Fishery Products (Official Controls Charges) (England) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/2904). These Regulations provide for the execution and enforcement in relation to England of Articles26 and 27 of Regulation (EC) No. 882/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on official controls performed to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules (OJ No. L165, 30.4.2004, p.1; the revised text of Regulation (EC) No. 882/2004 is now set out in a Corrigendum, OJ No. L191, 28.5.2004, p.1, which should be read with a further Corrigendum, OJ No. L 204, 4.8.2007, p. 29), in so far as those provisions require fees to be collected to cover the costs occasioned by official controls performed on fishery products under Annex III to Regulation (EC) No. 854/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down specific rules for the organisation of official controls on products of animal origin intended for human consumption (OJ L139, 30.4.2004, p.206; the revised text of Regulation (EC) No. 854/2004 is now set out in a Corrigendum, OJ No.L226, 25.6.2004, p.83, which should be read with a further Corrigendum, OJ No. L204, 4.8.2007, p.26). These Regulations — state what costs constitute the actual costs of exercising official controls for the purposes of the Regulations (regulation 3); provide the rates to calculate the sterling equivalent of any sums which are specified in Euros in the Regulations (regulation 4); prescribe how the length of an “account period” for the purposes of the Regulations is to be determined (regulation 5); provide that where a duty to pay charges under the Regulations is imposed on more than one person it may be enforced jointly or separately against such persons (regulation 6); require authorities to which charges are payable under the Regulations to calculate the charges, recalculate if an error is made and give notice of amounts due to those liable to pay (regulation 7); provide for appeals against decisions of authorities imposing charges under the Regulations and lay down the requirements for the conduct and determination of such appeals (regulation 8); provide for the payment of charges by one food authority to another where charges are payable to more than one authority (the term “food authority” is defined in regulation 2) (regulation 9); require payment of a specified amount to the relevant food authority by vendors of relevant fishery products or relevant landed fishery products in relation to the first placing on the market or first sale in a fish market of such products (the terms “relevant food authority”, “vendor”, “relevant fishery products”, “relevant landed fishery products”, “first placing on the market” and “first sale in a fish market” are defined in regulation 2) (regulation 10); require those vendors to supply the relevant food authority with returns in respect of the aggregate of transactions for which charges are payable by them under regulation 10, specify the information to be contained in such returns, permit the relevant food authority to require those vendors to supply additional information in relation to such transactions, require them to keep records that are sufficient to enable them to supply such information and make it a summary offence fail to comply with any such requirement (regulation 11); require payment of a specified amount to the relevant food authority by proprietors or operators of processing establishments in relation to fishery products entering the establishment concerned for the purpose of processing (the terms “processing establishment” and “processing” are defined in regulation 2) (regulation 12); and require proprietors and operators of processing establishments to supply the relevant food authority with returns in respect of fishery products for which charges are payable under regulation 12, specify the information to be contained in such returns, permit the relevant food authority to require those proprietors or operators to supply additional information in relation to such products, require them to keep records that are sufficient to enable them to supply such information and make it a summary offence to fail to comply with any such requirement (regulation 13). An impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sector is available from the Fish and Shellfish Hygiene Branch, Primary Production Division, of the Food Standards Agency at Aviation House, 125 Kingsway, London, WC2B 6NH and is annexed to the Explanatory Memorandum which is available alongside the instrument on the OPSI website.

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.

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”; the provision states liability on summary conviction; the provision states a penalty in older drafting
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