UK Offence Report

4 Any person who fails to comply with any of the following is guilty of an offence— a the following…

regulation 4 of The Beef and Veal Labelling Regulations 2008 (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

4 Any person who fails to comply with any of the following is guilty of an offence—

a the following provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1760/2000 of the European Parliament and the Council—

i Article 11 (requirement to label);

ii Article 13(1) (general rules);

iii Article 13(2) (indications on the label);

iv Article 13(5) (additional information on the label);

v Article 14 (labelling of minced beef);

vi Article 15 (beef from third countries);

vii Article 16(4) (voluntary labelling);

viii Article 17(1) (voluntary labelling of beef from third countries);

b the following provisions of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1825/2000—

i Article 1 (traceability);

ii Article 2 (labelling);

iii Article 4 (size and composition of

a group);

iv Article 5(2) (minced beef);

v Article 6(3) (beef in small retail packages);

vi Article 7 (access to premises and records);

c the following provision of Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007—

i Article 113b (marketing of the meat of bovine animals aged

12 months or less);

ii paragraph II of Annex XIa (classification at the slaughterhouse);

iii paragraph III of Annex XIa (sales descriptions);

iv paragraph IV of Annex XIa (compulsory information on the label);

v paragraph V of Annex XIa (optional information on the label);

vi paragraph VI of Annex XIa (recording);

vii paragraph VIII of Annex XIa (meat from third countries);

d the following provision of Commission Regulation (EC) No 566/2008—

i Article 4(1) (compulsory information on the label);

ii Article 4(2) (indication of age);

iii Article 5 (recording information).

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 do something the instrument requires
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?

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 any of the following.
  2. Not doing what the provision requires under the Beef and Veal Labelling Regulations 2008, by the time it requires it to be done.
  3. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

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 (2009-01-19); 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
17 December 2008
In force from
19 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 replace the Beef Labelling (Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2000 with Regulations setting out requirements for the labelling of veal as well as beef. They continue to enforce Title II of Regulation (EC) No 1760/2000 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a system for the identification and registration of bovine animals and regarding the labelling of beef and beef products and subsidiary Commission Regulations. They also enforce the provisions relating to meat of bovine animals aged 12 months or less of Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 establishing a common organisation of agricultural markets and on specific provisions for certain agricultural products as well as the provisions of Commission Regulation (EC) No 566/2008 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 as regards the marketing of the meat of bovine animals aged 12 months or less. They are enforced by the local authority, port health authority or Secretary of State in accordance with regulation 3. Breach of the Regulations is an offence punishable on summary conviction with a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale. A full impact assessment has been produced and placed in the library of each House of Parliament. It is available on the Defra website at www.defra.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