UK Offence Report

Penalties and enforcement

regulation 7(1) of The Meat Products (Wales) Regulations 2004

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

1 If any person contravenes or fails to comply with regulation 4, 5(2) or 6(1) of these Regulations, that person shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

5 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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.

The defence, as drafted

0 In any proceedings for an offence under these Regulations it shall be a defence for the person charged to prove that — a i the act was committed before 1st August 2004 and ii the matter constituting the offence would not have constituted an offence under the Meat Products and Spreadable Fish Products Regulations 1984 as they stood immediately prior to the coming into f

What would breach regulation 7(1)?

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 Meat Products (Wales) Regulations 2004, 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)
Not determined

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (2004-05-31); 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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Products Containing Meat etc. (Wales) Regulations 2014
Revoked on
13 December 2014
Made
19 May 2004
In force from
31 May 2004
Extent
W

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

In relation to Wales these Regulations revoke and replace in part, the Meat Products and Spreadable Fish Products Regulations 1984 (S.I. 1984/1566, as amended) which extend to England and Wales (regulation 11). These Regulations — a define various expressions used in the Regulations (regulation 2); b specify the scope of the Regulations (regulation 3); c prohibit the use of specified names in the labelling or advertising of meat products if the products do not satisfy specific compositional requirements and the sale of food labelled in contravention of that prohibition (regulation 4 and Schedule 2); d prescribe that, save in specified cases, where meat products of a specified appearance are sold the name used as the name of the food in the labelling of the products must include an indication of any added ingredients of animal origin and of any other added ingredients not falling into specified categories (regulation 5 and Schedule 3); e subject to an exception, prohibit the sale of uncooked meat products which include amongst their ingredients specified parts of the carcase of any mammalian species of animal (regulation 6); f prescribe penalties for breach of the Regulations and allocate responsibility for their enforcement and execution (regulation 7); g subject to a modification, apply specified provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 for the purposes of the Regulations (regulation 8); h amend the Food Labelling Regulations 1996 (S.I. 1996/1499 as amended) in relation to Wales by — i adding to regulation 2(1) (interpretation) a definition of “meat product”, and ii in regulation 23 (food which is not prepacked and similar food and fancy confectionery products) adding, as an exception to that regulation, a new paragraph 2(c) providing that, in the case of meat products other than specified ones, which are not prepacked or which are prepacked for direct sale, and subject to a transitional provision, a declaration is required in accordance with regulation 5(bA) of the 1996 Regulations as to the quantity of certain ingredients or categories of ingredients (regulation 9); and i include a transitional provision relating to offences under the Regulations committed before 1st August 2004 and a defence in relation to food intended for export (regulation 10). A Regulatory appraisal in relation to these Regulations has been prepared pursuant to section 65 of the Government of Wales Act 1998 and placed in the Library of the National Assembly for Wales. Copies may be obtained from the Food Standards Agency, 11th Floor, Southgate House, Cardiff, CF10 1EW.

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 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person is “guilty of an offence”; the provision states liability on summary conviction; the provision states a penalty in older drafting
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