UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Natural Mineral Water, Spring Water and Bottled Drinking Water (Wales) Regulations 2015

the instrument as a whole of The Natural Mineral Water, Spring Water and Bottled Drinking Water (Wales) Regulations 2015

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

Contravening this instrument is an offence under sections 10(2), 33 and 35 of the Food Safety Act 1990. The instrument itself contains no offence-creating words.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
breaching the provision
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
Not determined

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.

Classifier’s reasoning: contravention offences of this kind are strict as to the breach; the fault position is governed by the parent Act and was not read from it.

What would breach the instrument as a whole?

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 what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Natural Mineral Water, Spring Water and Bottled Drinking Water (Wales) Regulations 2015.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Set by another provision — the instrument states the penalty by reference to an Act or to another regulation
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

The instrument does not state a penalty itself. It sets one by reference to sections 10(2), 33 and 35 of the Food Safety Act 1990.

the penalty is in the parent Act, not in this instrument.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

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
4 November 2015
In force from
28 November 2015
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 Wales, implement and enforce the following European instruments— a Council Directive 98/83/EC relating to the quality of water intended for human consumption (OJ No L 330, 3.11.1998, p 32), so far as it applies to water intended to be labelled and sold as “spring water” or “dŵr ffynnon” and bottled drinking water; b Directive 2009/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the exploitation and marketing of natural mineral waters (OJ No L 164, 26.6.2009, p 45); c Commission Directive 2003/40/EC establishing the list, concentration limits and labelling requirements for the constituents of natural mineral waters and the conditions for using ozone-enriched air for the treatment of natural mineral waters and spring waters (OJ No L 126, 22.5.2003, p 34); d Commission Regulation (EU) No 115/2010 laying down the conditions for use of activated alumina for the removal of fluoride from natural mineral waters and spring waters (OJ No L 37, 10.2.2010, p 13); and e Council Directive 2013/51/Euratom laying down the requirements for the protection of the health of the general public with regard to radioactive substances in water intended for human consumption (OJ No L 296, 7.11.2013, p 12), so far as it applies to water intended to be labelled and sold as “spring water” or “dŵr ffynnon” and bottled drinking water. The Regulations revoke and replace the Natural Mineral Water, Spring Water and Bottled Water (Wales) Regulations 2007 (S.I. 2007/3165 (W.276)) and amending instruments. Part 1 is introductory and includes relevant definitions. Part 2 prescribes the conditions for recognising natural mineral water. Regulation 5 enables a food authority to refuse to grant or withdraw recognition of natural mineral water and provides a right to appeal against such a decision. Part 2 also applies restrictions on exploiting natural mineral water springs as well as the treatment, bottling, labelling, advertisement and sale of natural mineral water. Part 3 applies restrictions on exploiting springs and the treatment, bottling, labelling, advertisement and sale of water intended to be sold as “spring water” or “dŵr ffynnon”. Part 4 applies restrictions on the bottling, labelling, advertisement and sale of bottled drinking water. Part 5 prescribes the requirements for monitoring natural mineral water, water bottled and labelled as “spring water” or “dŵr ffynnon” and bottled drinking water for the purpose of ensuring that the requirements of these Regulations are satisfied. Regulation 26 prescribes the remedial action that must be taken by a food authority in relation to water bottled and labelled as “spring water” or “dŵr ffynnon” and bottled drinking water in the event of non-compliance with the parametric values for the parameters set out in Schedule 7. Part 6 provides for enforcement, transitional provisions, revocations and amendments to other legislation. Regulation 32 imposes an obligation on food authorities to execute and enforce the Regulations. Regulations 33 to 35 and Schedule 12 apply certain provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 (1990 c. 16), with modifications. This includes the application (with modifications) of section 10(1), enabling an improvement notice to be served requiring compliance with specified provisions of the Regulations. The provisions, as applied, make the failure to comply with an improvement notice an offence. Regulation 38 and Schedule 13 make amendments to the Private Water Supplies (Wales) Regulations 2010, the Food Safety (Sampling and Qualifications) (Wales) Regulations 2013 and the Food Information (Wales) Regulations 2014. The Welsh Ministers’ Code of Practice on the carrying out of Regulatory Impact Assessments was considered in relation to these Regulations. As a result, a regulatory impact assessment has been prepared as to the likely costs and benefits of complying with these Regulations. A copy can be obtained from the Food Standards Agency at Food Standards Agency Wales, 11th Floor, Southgate House, Wood Street, Cardiff, CF10 1EW or from the Agency’s website at www.food.gov.uk/wales.

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 0.70.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.70 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