UK Offence Report

1 A person who fails to comply with a notice referred to in regulation 3(1) is guilty of an offence, and…

regulation 4(1) of The Reporting of Prices of Milk Products (England) Regulations 2008

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 A person who fails to comply with

a notice referred to in regulation 3(1) is 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to comply with a notice or direction
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 4(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 fails to comply with a notice referred to in regulation 3(1).
  2. Being served with a notice under the Reporting of Prices of Milk Products (England) Regulations 2008 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 (2008-07-01); 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
3 June 2008
In force from
1 July 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 revoke and remake with amendments the Reporting of Prices of Milk Products (England) Regulations 2005 (S.I. 2005/1441). They implement in England article 6 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 562/2005 (OJ No L 95, 14.4.05, p 11) laying down rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 1255/1999 as regards communications between the Member States and the Commission in the milk and milk products sector, as amended from time to time. Regulation 3 requires milk processors to provide the Secretary of State with such information relating to the prices of certain milk products as the Secretary of State may require by notice. Regulation 4 sets out offences. A full regulatory impact assessment of the effect of the Reporting of Prices of Milk Products (England) Regulations 2005 on the costs of business was prepared at the time those Regulations were made and is still considered to be accurate. No impact assessment has been produced for this instrument as no new impact on the costs of business is foreseen. Copies of the 2005 assessment can be obtained from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Area 5d, 9 Millbank, c/o Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR. A copy of that assessment has been placed in the library of each House of Parliament.

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