UK Offence Report

Prohibition of import

regulation 3(5) of The Food (Peanuts from China) (Emergency Control) (Wales) (No. 2) Regulations 2002

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

5 For the purpose of determining whether or not any person is guilty of an offence consisting of

a breach of paragraph (4), any Chinese peanuts shall be presumed until the contrary is proved to be controlled Chinese peanuts.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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

The defence, as drafted

ach of paragraph (4), any Chinese peanuts shall be presumed until the contrary is proved to be controlled Chinese peanuts.

What would breach regulation 3(5)?

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 the thing the provision prohibits under the Food (Peanuts from China) (Emergency Control) (Wales) (No. 2) Regulations 2002, whatever the reason for doing it.
  2. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
3 months

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (2002-09-09); 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
4 September 2002
In force from
9 September 2002
Extent
W

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, which apply to Wales only, revoke and re-enact with changes the Food (Peanuts from China) (Emergency Control) (Wales) Regulations 2002. The revocation is effected by regulation 7. The Regulations implement Commission Decision 2002/79/EC imposing special conditions on the import of peanuts and certain products derived from peanuts originating in, or consigned from, China (OJ No. L34, 5.2.2002, p.21) as amended by Commission Decision 2002/233/EC (OJ No. L78, 21.3.2002, p.14) and Commission Decision 2002/678/EC (OJ No. L229, 27.8.2002, p.33). The categories of products which are subject to those conditions are specified in Article 1.1 of Commission Decision 2002/79/EC as so amended. The Regulations— a prohibit the importation of “Chinese peanuts” (defined in regulation 2(1)) into Wales; b prohibit the transport into Wales, from any other part of the United Kingdom, any controlled Chinese peanuts which have not been lawfully imported into the United Kingdom through a point of entry listed in Annex II to the Commission Decision. ( Note: There are no specified points of entry for the United Kingdom located in Wales) (regulations 2 and 3); c specify the enforcement authorities and their duties under the Regulations (regulation 4); d apply with modifications certain provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 for the purposes of the Regulations and provide for sampling and analysis (regulation 5); and e provide for the re-dispatch or destruction of illegal imports of controlled Chinese peanuts (regulation 6). No regulatory appraisal has been prepared in relation to this Order. These Regulations have been made in English only as, given the urgency with which they have had to be made, it was not reasonably practicable in the time available to produce a Welsh text.

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