UK Offence Report

Offences and Penalties

regulation 5(1) of The Nutrition and Health Claims (Wales) Regulations 2007

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 Subject to the derogation contained in Article 1(3) (relating to trade marks etc) and to the transitional measures contained in Article 28, any person who contravenes or fails to comply with the provisions of the Regulation specified in paragraph (2) is guilty of an offence and liable —

a on conviction on indictment to

a term of imprisonment not exceeding two years or to

a fine or both;

b on summary conviction to

a term of imprisonment not exceeding three months or to

a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 provisions of the Regulation specified in paragraph (2).
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Nutrition and Health Claims (Wales) Regulations 2007, 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
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland.

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 September 2007
In force from
1 October 2007
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, which apply in relation to Wales, make provision for the execution and enforcement of Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council on nutrition and health claims made on foods, as corrected by a Corrigendum (OJ No. L12, 18.1.2007, p3), “the EC Regulation”. The Regulations — designate the competent authorities for the purposes of certain Articles of the EC Regulation (regulation 3); specify the enforcement authorities (regulation 4); provide that, subject to certain derogations and transitional measures specified in the EC Regulation where relevant, it is an offence - to make nutrition or health claims that do not in general comply with the requirements of the EC Regulation and in particular that are misleading or make certain specifically prohibited types of claim; to make claims on alcoholic drinks other than to the very limited extent permitted by the EC Regulation; to make a claim which cannot be scientifically justified; to fail to provide the prescribed nutrition information when making a health claim; to make a nutrition claim which is not one of the ones listed in the Annex to the EC Regulation; to make a comparative nutrition claim that does not comply with the requirements of the EC Regulation; to make a health claim that is not authorised under the procedures provided for in the EC Regulation and is not accompanied by certain specified information in the labelling or other presentation; to make a health claim of a type specifically prohibited by the EC Regulation; or in the case of health claims relating to the reduction of disease risk, to fail to accompany the claim with the statement prescribed in the EC Regulation (regulation 5). The Regulations also — apply certain provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 for the purposes of these Regulations (regulation 6); provide that, subject to certain limitations, it is an offence to obstruct, fail to give information to or intentionally mislead anyone executing and enforcing these Regulations (regulation 7); and make an amendment to the Food Labelling Regulations 1996 relating to the areas where there is some overlap between those Regulations and the EC Regulation (regulation 8). A full regulatory impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business is available from the Food Standards Agency, 11th Floor, Southgate House, 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