UK Offence Report

Amendment of the Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (Wales) Regulations 2012

regulation 5 of The Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2018

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

Offences of contravening specified provisions of Regulation 2018/213 17B Subject to the transitional provisions contained in Article 6, any person who places on the market

a material or article that fails to comply with Article

2 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
selling or supplying something the instrument restricts
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 5?

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 places on the market a material or article that fails to comply with Article 2.
  2. Selling the goods under the Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 where the instrument prohibits the sale outright.
  3. Supplying without carrying out a check the instrument requires first, even where the sale would otherwise be lawful.
  4. Offering for sale counts as well as selling: displaying stock is enough where the provision reaches an offer.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated here: this instrument amends another one, and the penalty for the offence is in the instrument being amended.

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
30 July 2018
In force from
6 September 2018
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 amend the Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (Wales) Regulations 2012 (S.I. 2012/2705 (W. 291)) (“the principal Regulations”) to provide for the enforcement of Commission Regulation (EU) 2018/213 on the use of bisphenol A in varnishes and coatings intended to come into contact with food and amending Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 as regards the use of that substance in plastic food contact materials (OJ No L 41, 14.2.2018, p. 6) (“Regulation 2018/213”). Regulation 4 amends regulation 14 of the principal Regulations to enforce the transitional provision provided for in Article 6 of Regulation 2018/213. A person is not guilty of the offence of failing to comply with a requirement of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 on plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food (OJ No L 12, 15.1.2011, p. 1) specified in column 1 of Schedule 1 of the principal Regulations if the plastic material or article was lawfully placed on the market before 6 September 2018. Such products may remain on the market until exhaustion of stocks. Regulation 5 inserts new regulations 17A to 17C into the principal Regulations to provide for the enforcement of the provisions of Regulation 2018/213 on the use of bisphenol A in varnishes and coatings intended to come into contact with food. New regulation 17B provides that subject to the transitional provision in Article 6 of Regulation 2018/213, any person who places on the market a material or article that fails to comply with Article 2 of that Regulation is guilty of an offence. Article 2 provides that no bisphenol A may be released from varnishes or coatings specifically intended to come into contact with foods for babies, infants or young children and that, in relation to all other varnishes and coatings intended to come into contact with food, no more than 0.05mg of bisphenol A may be released per kg of food with which they are in contact. New regulation 17C provides that the Food Standards Agency is the competent authority for the purposes of Article 4(3) of Regulation 2018/213. Regulations 6 and 7 amend the principal Regulations to provide that a person who intentionally obstructs any person acting in the execution of Regulation 2018/213 commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale. A person guilty of the offence of failing to comply with Article 2 of Regulation 2018/213 is liable on conviction on indictment to an unlimited fine or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding two years, or both, or on summary conviction, to an unlimited fine. Regulations 8 and 9 amend the principal Regulations to enable an authorised officer of the enforcement authority to serve an improvement notice to require a person to comply with Article 4 of Regulation 2018/213. Article 4 requires business operators to ensure that varnished or coated materials and articles intended to come into contact with food are accompanied by a written declaration of compliance with Regulation 2018/213. 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.

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