UK Offence Report

Duty to give assistance and provide information

regulation 9(4) of The Spirit Drinks 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

4 Any person who contravenes paragraph (3) is guilty of an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Legal burden on the defendant

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 gives a defence the defendant must prove, on the balance of probabilities. A legal burden of that kind can be read down to a merely evidential one under section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 where placing it on the defendant would be disproportionate (R v Lambert [2001] UKHL 37; Sheldrake v DPP [2004] UKHL 43).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

The defence, as drafted

21 1 It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under these Regulations to prove that they took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid committing the offence. 2 A may not rely on a defence that involves an allegation that the commission of the offence was due to the act or default of B unless— a at least seven clear

What would breach regulation 9(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 a person contravenes paragraph (3).
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Spirit Drinks Regulations 2008, 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
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

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
Status not determined
Made
15 December 2008
In force from
16 January 2009
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 make provision for the enforcement of Regulation (EC) No 110/2008 (OJ No L 39, 13.2.2008, p 16) of the European Parliament and of the Council on the definition, description, presentation, labelling and the protection of geographical indications of spirit drinks and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 1576/89, and give enforcement authorities new powers in relation to the enforcement of EC requirements relating to spirit drinks, including the power to give improvement notices and to impose monetary penalties by penalty notice. These Regulations revoke the Spirit Drinks Regulations 1990 (S.I. 1990/1179), the Spirit Drinks (Scotland) Regulations 1990 (S.I. 1990/1196 (S. 136)), the Spirit Drinks Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1990 (S.R. (NI) 1990 No 219), the Spirit Drinks (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 1995 (S.I. 1995/484 (S. 33)), the Spirit Drinks (Amendment) Regulations 1995 (S.I. 1995/732) and the Spirit Drinks (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995 (S.R. (NI) 1995 No 105) (regulation 2 and Schedule 1). The 1990 Regulations, as amended, made provision for the enforcement of Council Regulation (EEC) No 1576/89 (OJ No L 160, 12.6.1989, p 1) laying down general rules on the definition, description and presentation of spirit drinks and Commission Regulation (EEC) No 1014/90 (OJ No L 105, 25.4.1990, p 9) laying down detailed implementing rules on the definition, description and presentation of spirit drinks. Regulation (EC) No 110/2008 supersedes those EC Regulations. These Regulations include provisions making the failure to comply with the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 110/2008 mentioned in Schedule 2 an offence and create an additional offence to protect geographical indications registered in Annex III to that Regulation (regulation 4 and Schedule 2). They designate the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs as the verification authority for the purpose of Article 22 of Regulation (EC) No 110/2008 (regulation 5). They designate food authorities and port health authorities as the competent authorities for the purpose of Article 24(1) of Regulation (EC) No 110/2008 (regulation 6) and for the enforcement of the Regulations (regulation 7). They provide for the appointment of officers (regulation 8). They impose a duty on competent authorities and enforcement authorities to give assistance and information to each other and empower the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to disclose information to an enforcement authority for the purposes of these Regulations (regulation 9). They confer powers of entry (regulation 10) and other powers (regulation 11), including seizure powers, including the seizure of products liable to destruction. They require certain procedures to be followed in the event of any exercise of the seizure powers (regulation 12). They provide for the issue of improvement notices (regulation 13) and provide for appeals against improvement notices (regulations 14 and 15). They provide for the destruction of seized products and the giving of improvement notices to be publicised (regulation 16). They make obstruction an offence (regulation 17) and provide for the punishment of criminal offences (regulation 18). They also contain provisions relating to offences committed by a body corporate, unincorporated body or partnership (regulation 19), the commission of an offence due to the act or default of a third person (regulation 20) and defences (regulation 21). These Regulations also create a scheme for the issuing and payment of penalty notices for certain offences. They include provisions relating to the giving of a penalty notice (regulation 22 and Schedule 3), the content of such a notice (regulation 23), the amount of a penalty payable under a penalty notice (regulation 24 and Schedule 4), the period in which a penalty must be paid and the effect of paying a penalty (regulation 25), the method of paying a penalty (regulation 26), the issue of a certificate relating to the payment or non-payment of a penalty (regulation 27), the payment of penalties into the Consolidated Fund (regulation 28), and the withdrawal of a penalty notice (regulation 29). They also contain provisions relating to the giving of notices (regulation 30). A full impact assessment of the effect that these Regulations will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sector is available at www.defra.gov.uk or from Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London, SW1P 3JR. It is also annexed to the Explanatory Memorandum for these Regulations, which is available, alongside these Regulations, on the OPSI website (www.opsi.gov.uk ).

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