UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Products Containing Meat etc. (England) Regulations 2014

the instrument as a whole of The Products Containing Meat etc. (England) Regulations 2014

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

Contravening this instrument is an offence under sections 10(2), 33 and 35 of the Food Safety Act 1990. The instrument itself contains no offence-creating words.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
selling or supplying something the instrument restricts
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
Not determined

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.

Classifier’s reasoning: contravention offences of this kind are strict as to the breach; the fault position is governed by the parent Act and was not read from it.

What would breach the instrument as a whole?

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. Selling the goods under the Products Containing Meat etc. (England) Regulations 2014 where the instrument prohibits the sale outright.
  2. Supplying without carrying out a check the instrument requires first, even where the sale would otherwise be lawful.
  3. Offering for sale counts as well as selling: displaying stock is enough where the provision reaches an offer.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Set by another provision — the instrument states the penalty by reference to an Act or to another regulation
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

The instrument does not state a penalty itself. It sets one by reference to sections 10(2), 33 and 35 of the Food Safety Act 1990.

the penalty is in the parent Act, not in this instrument.

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
12 November 2014
In force from
13 December 2014
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 replace the Meat Products (England) Regulations 2003 (S.I. 2003/2075). They apply in England. The Regulations will cease to have effect on 13th December 2021, apart from the consequential amendments made by these Regulations to the Education (Nutritional Standards and Requirements for School Food) (England) Regulations 2007 (S.I. 2007/2359). Those consequential amendments will cease to have effect on 1st January 2015 when the Education (Nutritional Standards and Requirements for School Food) (England) Regulations 2007 are revoked by the Requirements for School Food Regulations 2014 (S.I. 2014/1603). Regulation 3 sets out the scope of the Regulations. Regulation 4 and Schedule 1 prohibit the use of specified names in the sale and advertising of regulated products if the products do not satisfy specific compositional requirements. Regulation 5 prohibits, subject to an exception, the sale of uncooked regulated products which include among their ingredients specified parts of the carcase of any mammalian species of animal. Regulation 6 imposes an obligation on food authorities and port health authorities to enforce the Regulations. Regulation 7 and Schedule 2 apply certain provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 (c. 16), with modifications. In particular, they include the application (with modifications) of section 10(1), enabling an improvement notice to be served to require compliance with regulations 4(1) or (2) or 5(1). The provisions, as applied, make the failure to comply with an improvement notice an offence. Regulation 7 and Schedule 2 also apply sections 37(1) and (6), and 39, of the Food Safety Act 1990, with modifications, enabling a decision to serve an improvement notice to be appealed to the First-tier Tribunal. As well as revoking the Meat Products (England) Regulations 2003, regulation 8 revokes the Meat Products (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/517) and provisions in other statutory instruments that amended the Meat Products (England) Regulations 2003. Regulation 9 and Schedule 3 make consequential amendments to the Education (Nutritional Standards and Requirements for School Food) (England) Regulations 2007 and the Requirements for School Food Regulations 2014. Regulation 10 requires the Secretary of State to review the operation and effect of these Regulations and publish a report within five years after the Regulations come into force. Following the review it will fall to the Secretary of State to consider whether the Regulations should be allowed to expire as regulation 1(4) provides, be revoked early, or continue in force with or without amendment. A further instrument would be needed to continue the Regulations in force with or without amendments or to revoke them early. The Regulations were notified in draft (Notification No 2014/0100/UK on 4th March 2014) to the European Commission in accordance with Directive 98/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ No L 204, 21.7.1998, p 37), which lays down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations. A full impact assessment of the effect these Regulations will have on the costs of business, the voluntary sector and the public sector is available from Food and Materials Security and Food Standards, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR and is published with the Explanatory Memorandum alongside the Regulations on www.legislation.gov.uk.

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 0.65.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.65 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