UK Offence Report

Application and modification of provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990

regulation 33(2) of The Animals and Animal Products (Examination for Residues and Maximum Residue Limits) (Wales) Regulations 2019

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

2 Section

9 of the Act (inspection and seizure of suspected food) applies, subject to paragraph (3), for the purposes of these Regulations as if an animal product which it is an offence to sell under these Regulations was food which failed to comply with food safety requirements.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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; 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 33(2)?

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 it is an offence to sell under these Regulations was food which failed to comply with food safety requirements.
  2. Selling the goods under the Animals and Animal Products (Examination for Residues and Maximum Residue Limits) (Wales) Regulations 2019 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 in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

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
13 March 2019
In force from
28 March 2019
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 revoke the statutory instruments listed in the Schedule, consolidating their provisions. The Regulations implement Council Directive 96/22/EC concerning the prohibition on the use in stockfarming of certain substances having a hormonal or thyrostatic action and of beta-agonists, and Council Directive 96/23/EC on measures to monitor certain substances and residues thereof in live animals and animal products, and provide for the execution and enforcement of Regulation (EC) No 470/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down Community procedures for the establishment of residue limits of pharmacologically active substances in foodstuffs of animal origin. The Regulations— a prohibit the sale, possession or administration to animals of specified unauthorised substances (regulations 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7); b prohibit the possession or slaughter of, or the processing of the meat of, animals intended for human consumption to which there has been administered, which contains, or in which the presence has been established of, specified unauthorised substances (regulation 8); c prohibit the sale or supply, for slaughter for human consumption, of animals to which substances have been administered in certain circumstances including, subject to an exception, where the withdrawal period for the product administered has not expired (regulation 9); d prohibit the sale for human consumption of any animal product derived from an animal the sale or supply for slaughter of which is prohibited under regulation 9 or any animal product which contains an unauthorised substance or an excess of an authorised substance (regulation 10); e prohibit, subject to an exception, the disposal for human or animal consumption of the carcase or offal of an animal or an animal from a batch of animals where that animal or an animal of that batch has been slaughtered further to a notice referred to in regulation 22(3) (examination shows specified unauthorised substance) (regulations 11 and 12); f give authorised officers the power to take samples and provide for the analysis of official samples (regulations 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19); g give authorised officers the power to inspect and examine animals and provide for the subsequent service of notices (regulations 20, 21 and 22); h provide for offences, penalties and enforcement (regulations 23 and 24); i provide specific defences and exceptions (regulations 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29); j deny to processors a due diligence defence in specified circumstances (regulations 30 and 31); k specify requirements relating to the keeping of records (regulation 32); l apply, with some modifications, provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990, including the defence of due diligence (regulation 33); and m revoke the instruments specified in the Schedule (regulation 34). The Welsh Ministers’ Code of Practice on the carrying out of Regulatory Impact Assessments was considered in relation to these Regulations. As a result, it was not considered necessary to carry out a regulatory impact assessment as to the likely costs and benefits of complying with these Regulations.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

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 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 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