UK Offence Report

Penalty and enforcement

regulation 4(1) of The Kava-kava in Food (Wales) Regulations 2006

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 regulation

3 is guilty of an offence and is 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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.

What would breach regulation 4(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 regulation 3.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Kava-kava in Food (Wales) Regulations 2006, 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
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 (2006-07-14); 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
11 July 2006
In force from
14 July 2006
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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations (subject to exceptions in certain circumstances in relation to imports from EEA States) prohibit the sale, possession for sale, offer, exposure or advertisement for sale, and the importation into Wales from outside the United Kingdom or the transportation into Wales from any other part of the United Kingdom, of any food consisting of, or containing, Kava-kava (being a plant or part of a plant, or an extract from such a plant, belonging to the species Piper methysticum) (regulation 3). Any such food may be treated as being unfit for human consumption and be liable to be seized and destroyed (regulation 5(3)). The Regulations create an offence in relation to breaches and provide for enforcement by food authorities (regulation 4). They also create a presumption, unless it is proved to the contrary, that where part of a batch, lot or consignment of food contravenes the Regulations, the whole batch, lot or consignment is deemed to contravene the Regulations (regulation 6). A draft of the Regulations was notified to the European Commission in accordance with Article 8 of the European Parliament and Council Directive 98/34/EC laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations and of rules of Information Society services (OJ No. L204, 21.7.1998, p.37), as amended by the European Parliament and Council Directive 98/48/EC (OJ No. L217, 5.8.1998, p.18). The Kava-kava in Food (Wales) Regulations 2002 were not so notified, in error, and were subsequently revoked by the Kava-kava in Food (Wales) (Revocation) Regulations 2003. These Regulations replace the 2002 Regulations. A Regulatory Appraisal has been prepared and placed in the Library of the National Assembly for Wales and copies can 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
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