UK Offence Report

Offences and Penalties

regulation 5(1) of The Genetically Modified Food (Wales) Regulations 2004

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

1 Any person who contravenes or fails to comply with the specified Community provision referred to in Part I of the Schedule is guilty of an offence and liable —

a on summary conviction to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding six months or to

a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum; or

b on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding two years or to

a fine or to both.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 regulation 5(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. On these words an offence is committed where a person contravenes or fails to comply with the specified Community provision referred to in Part I of the Schedule.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Genetically Modified Food (Wales) Regulations 2004, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
6 months
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (2004-12-17); 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
7 December 2004
In force from
17 December 2004
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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations, which apply to Wales, provide for the enforcement and execution of certain specified provisions (relating to food) of Regulation (EC) No. 1829/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council on genetically modified food and feed (OJ No. L268, 18.10.2003, p.1). Separate Regulations make provision for the enforcement of those provisions of Regulation (EC) No. 1829/2003 relating to animal feed. In particular these Regulations — a formally designate the Food Standards Agency as the national competent authority to receive applications for the authorisation of new genetically modified organisms for food use, food containing or consisting of genetically modified organisms, or food produced from or containing ingredients produced from genetically modified organisms (regulation 3); b provide for food authorities to enforce the provisions of these Regulations and Chapter II of Regulation (EC) No. 1829/2003 (regulation 4); c establish penalties for failing to comply with certain specified provisions of Regulation (EC) No. 1829/2003, once the Regulations are in force (regulation 5 and the Schedule); d apply various provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 with some modifications in their application for the purposes of these Regulations (regulations 6 and 7); e revoke the Genetically Modified and Novel Foods (Labelling) (Wales) Regulations 2000 (regulation 8); f make consequential amendments to the Novel Foods and Novel Food Ingredients Regulations 1997 and to the Food (Provisions Relating to Labelling) (Wales) Regulations 2003 (regulation 9). A regulatory appraisal pursuant to section 65 of the Government of Wales Act 1998 has been prepared for these regulations and placed in the library of the National Assembly for Wales together with a Transposition Note. Copies may be obtained from the Food Standards Agency, 11th Floor, Southgate House, Wood Street, Cardiff, CF10 1EW.

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