UK Offence Report

Obstruction of authorised officers

regulation 16(2) of The Textile Products (Labelling and Fibre Composition) Regulations 2012

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

2 Any person who, in giving any information which is required of him under paragraph (1)(c), makes any statement which he knows to be false in

a material particular is guilty of an offence and liable—

a on summary conviction, to

a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum; or

b on conviction on indictment, to

a fine or imprisonment for

a term not exceeding two years or both.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
making a false or misleading statement
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 16(2)?

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. Entering a figure on a form or return that is known to be wrong under the Textile Products (Labelling and Fibre Composition) Regulations 2012.
  2. Leaving out something the form asks for, where the omission is what makes the answer misleading.
  3. Producing a document to an official that has been altered since it was issued.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£1,000
Standard scale
Level 3
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

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 April 2012
In force from
8 May 2012
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 set out the enforcement provisions including the sanctions that will apply to Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27th September 2011 on textile fibres and related labelling and marking of the fibre composition of textile products and repealing Council Directive 73/44/EEC and Directives 96/73/EC and 2008/121/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (“the EU Regulation”) (OJ No L272, 18.10.2011, p.1.). The EU Regulation comes into force on 8th May 2012. Regulation 2(1) revokes the existing Regulations on the labelling of textile products, listed in Schedule 1. The revoked Regulations had implemented the three Directives repealed by the EU Regulation. Regulation 2(2) sets out a transitional provision. There will be no offence under these Regulations in respect of textile products which were placed on the market in the United Kingdom before 8th May 2012, which continue to be made available on the market in the United Kingdom until 9th November 2012, if those products complied with the now revoked Regulations listed in Schedule 1. Regulation 3 sets out the relevant definitions including the definition of the EU Regulation. This definition contains an ambulatory reference, so that references in these Regulations to the Annexes to the EU Regulation are references to those Annexes as amended from time to time. Regulation 4 provides that local weights and measures authorities and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland (also “the enforcement authorities” under these Regulations), are market surveillance authorities for the purposes of carrying out market surveillance checks on fibre composition and labelling under the EU Regulation. Those market surveillance checks are to be carried out in accordance with Articles 19 and 20 and Annexes VII, VIII and IX to the EU Regulation. Regulation 5 makes it an offence for a person to make a relevant textile product available on the market in the United Kingdom, in breach of the provisions of the EU Regulation and regulation 6 sets out the penalties that apply. The offence will not apply to the persons referred to in Regulation 5(2). Regulations 7 to 10 contain provisions related to the offence, including a due diligence defence in regulation 10. Regulations 11 to 18 set out the investigation powers available to the enforcement authorities and penalties for non compliance (regulation 16). Whilst the EU Regulation does apply to the Crown, Regulation 19 disapplies the criminal offences and investigation powers as far as concerns the Crown. Those powers and criminal offences do however apply to persons in the public service of the Crown. Regulation 20 requires the Secretary of State to review the operation and effect of these Regulations and lay a report before Parliament within five years after they come into force and within every five years after that. Following a review it will fall to the Secretary of State to consider whether the Regulations should remain as they are, or be revoked or amended. A further instrument would be needed to revoke the Regulations or to amend them. The Department for Business Innovation and Skills intends to maintain up to date information on the amendments to the Annexes to the EU Regulation as they are made and come into force by publishing these on the BIS website (www.bis.gov.uk). An impact assessment of the effect that the instrument will have on the costs to business and the voluntary sector is available from the BIS website (www.bis.gov.uk). It is also annexed to the Explanatory Memorandum which is available alongside the instrument on www.legislation.gov.uk. A copy has also been placed in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament.

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”
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