Liability of persons other than the principal offender

regulation 75(2) of The Non-automatic Weighing Instruments Regulations 2016

Status not determined
Strict liability
Food, consumer protection, trading standards, product safety and age-restricted sales

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 Where a body corporate commits an offence and it is proved that the offence was committed— a with the consent or connivance of an officer of the body corporate; or b as a result of the negligence of an officer of the body corporate, the officer, as well as the body corporate, is guilty of the 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 body corporate
Conduct: breaching the provision
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 body corporate 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

shall be a defence for that person to show that that person took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid committing the offence. 2 Where, in proceedings against a person for such an offence, the defence provided by paragraph (1) involves an allegation that the commission of the offence was due to— a the act or default of another; or b reliance on inform

What would breach regulation 75(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.

Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Non-automatic Weighing Instruments Regulations 2016.

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.

Sentencing organisations: fines and the means of a corporate defendant All courts in England and Wales
How a fine on a company is arrived at from its turnover. Relevant far beyond the guidelines that state it, because a very large share of the offences in this corpus can only be committed by an organisation.
Health and safety offences, corporate manslaughter and food safety and hygiene offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 February 2016
Covers breaches of duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the regulations made under it, and food safety and food hygiene offences. Sentencing turns on culpability and on the seriousness and likelihood of harm risked, not only on the harm that happened.
Reduction in sentence for a guilty plea: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 June 2017
The sliding scale of credit for pleading guilty, from one third at the first stage of proceedings downwards.
General guideline: overarching principles All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 October 2019
The guideline a court uses when there is no offence-specific guideline, which is the position for the overwhelming majority of offences created by statutory instrument. It sets out how culpability and harm are assessed from first principles.
Totality: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales
How to sentence more than one offence at once so that the total is just and proportionate - frequently in point here, because regulatory prosecutions commonly charge several breaches of the same instrument.

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: 29 November 2016
In force from: 28 December 2016
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

These Regulations implement Directive 2014/31/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26th February 2014 on the harmonisation of the laws of Member States relating to the making available on the market of non-automatic weighing instruments. These Regulations replace and revoke the Non-automatic Weighing Instruments Regulations 2000 and the Non-automatic Weighing Instruments (Amendment) Regulations 2008. Non-automatic weighing instruments are defined as instruments which require the intervention of an operator to determine mass and other things related to mass by the use of gravity. The Regulations impose requirements in relation to the manufacture of non-automatic weighing instruments which are used for determining mass for: a commercial transactions; b the determination of the amount of certain payments such as tolls or taxes; c the purposes of court proceedings and legal requirements; d the weighing of patients for medical purposes; e making up medicines and other medical and pharmaceutical laboratory purposes; f direct sales to the public and the making up of pre-packages. and the determination of price on the basis of mass. These instruments are referred to in the Regulations as “regulated non-automatic weighing instruments”. The Regulations set out what are referred to as “the essential requirements” which must be met by regulated non-automatic weighing instruments. The essential requirements are defined in regulation 2(1) as the requirements relating to non-automatic weighing instruments set out in Annex I to the Directive. Part 1 of the Regulation contains definitions, revocations and transitional provisions. Part 2 of the Regulations sets out the obligations of economic operators (manufacturers (and their authorised representatives), importers and distributors) in connection with ensuring that instruments placed on the market meet the essential requirements and the other requirements of the Regulations. Part 3 of the Regulations makes provision for establishing conformity with the essential requirements. Regulation 40 sets out the conformity assessment procedures that must be used to ensure conformity with the essential requirements and the requirements to be followed and the use of notified bodies. Part 4 contains requirements as to markings to be placed on instruments that are not required to meet the essential requirements. Part 5 contains the requirements relating to the notification by the United Kingdom of conformity assessment bodies. Part 6 contains provisions prohibiting the use of non-automatic weighing instruments for the purposes listed in regulation 3(2) unless they have been subject to the appropriate conformity assessment procedures. Part 7 imposes certain requirements for the use for trade of regulated non-automatic weighing instruments. Part 8 makes provision in relation to market surveillance and enforcement of the Regulations; Part 9 makes provision about the unauthorised application of marks to regulated non-automatic weighing instruments and also makes provision in relation to penalties for offences and defences. Part 10 contains miscellaneous and supplemental provisions. A draft of these Regulations was notified to the European Commission in accordance with Directive 98/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations (OJ L 204, 21.7.1998, p.37) as amended by Directive 98/48/EC (OJ L 217, 5.8.1998, p.18). A transposition note and an impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business, the public sector and voluntary sector is available from the Regulatory Delivery Directorate, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1 0ET. They are also available with the explanatory memorandum alongside this instrument on www.legislation.gov.uk.

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.

Draft Product Safety and Metrology etc. (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 Commons · 12 March 2019 · Maria Eagle
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Gray. I thank both Front Benchers for the way in which they set out the points they made, and the SNP spokesman for his contribution. I am deeply concerned about this SI. Apart from the fact that it is as thick as a brick and weighs probably more than that, I find it difficult to conceive that anybody who might be affected by it could understand the meaning of…

Other offences in the same instrument

Where this paragraph (1) applies, if the economic operator on whom the compliance notice has been served,…regulation 66(2)
An economic operator that fails to comply with an enforcement notice served on the economic operator by the…regulation 66(3)
Disqualificationregulation 67(7)
Unauthorised application of authorised marksregulation 71(1)
Unauthorised application of authorised marksregulation 71(3)
Where an event of default of a kind mentioned in paragraph (1)(a), (1)(b) or (1)(c) occurs as a result of…regulation 72(2)
Where an event of default of a kind mentioned in paragraph (1)(d) or (1)(e) occurs, the person responsible…regulation 72(3)

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 “commits 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

This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
The Non-automatic Weighing Instruments Regulations 2016 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
Food, consumer protection, trading standards, product safety and age-restricted salesOther offences on the same subject
Offences created in 2016