UK Offence Report

10 Where a person on whom a stop notice is served does not comply with it within the time limit specified in…

paragraph 10 of SCHEDULE 3 of The Novel Foods (England) Regulations 2018

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

10 Where a person on whom a stop notice is served does not comply with it within the time limit specified in the notice, the person is guilty of an offence and liable to a fine.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
breaching the provision
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; other provisions of the same instrument use a mens rea word while this one does not (the Cundy v Le Cocq contrast).

What would breach paragraph 10 of SCHEDULE 3?

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. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Novel Foods (England) Regulations 2018.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

'to a fine' with no stated maximum.

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
6 February 2018
In force from
8 March 2018
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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations provide for the enforcement and execution of certain specified provisions of Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) No. 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Regulation (EC) No. 258/97 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1852/2001. Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 revises the requirements for placing novel foods on the market. The requirements have been updated in accordance with technical and scientific progress and include an updated definition of what constitutes a “novel food” and the European Commission will establish a European Union list of approved novel foods. Regulation 3 makes food authorities responsible for the enforcement of these Regulations. Regulation 4 provides for an offence and penalty. Regulation 5 applies Schedules 2 and 3 of the Regulations. These Schedules give power to food authorities to issue various civil sanctions and notices upon food businesses to enforce compliance with Regulation (EU) 2015/2283. Regulation 6 provides for appeals of civil sanctions and notices. Regulation 7 applies specified provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 (1990 c.16) (with modifications) to these Regulations. Regulation 8 revokes the Novel Foods and Novel Food Ingredients Regulations 1997 (S.I. 1997/1335) and the Novel Foods and Novel Food Ingredients (Fees) Regulations 1997 (S.I. 1997/1336) in relation to England. Regulation 9 provides for periodic review of the operation and effectiveness of the Regulations, and for publication of a report setting out the conclusions of each review. A full impact assessment of the effect that these Regulations will have on the costs of business and food authorities is available from the Food Standards Agency, 125 Kingsway, London WC2B 6NH, and is also available together with these Regulations at www.legislation.gov.uk.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

How this became law

This instrument became law without a debate or a vote. Under the negative procedure it took effect unless a motion to stop it succeeded, and none was tabled.

Neither House could have amended it. A statutory instrument is put to each House as a whole thing, to be approved or not; the Houses can reject an instrument or record their regret, but they cannot change a word of it. That is the constitutional position for every offence on this site.

The full procedural history →

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