UK Offence Report

Offences, penalties and savings

regulation 3(1) of The Food Enzymes (Wales) Regulations 2009 (revoked)

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 A person who contravenes or fails to comply with any of the provisions of the EC Regulation specified in paragraph (2) as read with the transitional arrangements contained in Article

18 and Article

24 is guilty of an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 3(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 any of the provisions of the EC Regulation specified in paragraph (2) as read with the transitional arrangements contained in Article 18 and Article 24.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Food Enzymes (Wales) Regulations 2009, 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 (2010-01-20); 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
21 December 2009
In force from
20 January 2010
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 provide for the execution and enforcement in Wales of Regulation (EC) No 1332/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on food enzymes and amending Council Directive 83/417/EEC, Council Regulation (EC) No 1493/1999, Directive 2000/13/EC, Council Directive 2001/112/EC and Regulation (EC) No 258/97 (OJ No. L354, 31.12.2008, p.7), (“the EC Regulation”). The Regulations provide that it is an offence— once the list of food enzymes mentioned in Article 17 of the EC Regulation has been adopted, to place on the market or use as food enzymes any that are not on that list (regulation 3(2)(a)); to place on the market a food enzyme (or any food containing such an enzyme) that is not compliant with the EC Regulation and its implementing measures (regulation 3(2)(b)); to fail to label food enzymes or enzyme preparations in accordance with the relevant requirements for business to business transactions (regulation 3(2)(c)) or for sales to the final consumer (regulation 3(2)(d)); or to fail to provide certain technical information to the Commission in specified circumstances (regulation 3(2)(e)). These Regulations also— designate the authorities having the duty to enforce these Regulations and the EC Regulation (regulation 4); apply certain specified provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 for the purpose of these Regulations (regulation 5); and provide that where food does not comply with these Regulations such that it would be an offence to place it on the market, it may be treated as failing to comply with food safety requirements for the purposes of seizure and destruction under section 9 of the Food Safety Act 1990 (regulation 6). The Regulations make consequential amendments— in relation to Wales, to the Food Labelling Regulations 1996 (regulation 7), the Caseins and Caseinates Regulations 1985 (regulation 8) and the Novel Foods and Novel Food Ingredients Regulations 1997 (regulation 10);and to the Fruit Juices and Fruit Nectars (Wales) Regulations 2003 (regulation 9). A full regulatory impact assessment has been undertaken in respect of these Regulations and is available from the Food Standards Agency, 11 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