UK Offence Report

Offence and penalty

regulation 11(1) of The Bread and Flour (Wales) Regulations 2025

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 fails to comply with an improvement notice commits 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to comply with a notice or direction
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 11(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 fails to comply with an improvement notice.
  2. Being served with a notice under the Bread and Flour (Wales) Regulations 2025 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  3. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  4. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

'to a fine' with no stated maximum.

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
27 January 2025
In force from
Not determined
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 make provision in relation to bread and flour that is to be sold in, or imported or moved into, Wales. These Regulations revoke and replace (with amendments) the Bread and Flour Regulations 1998 (S.I. 1998/141) insofar as those regulations apply in relation to Wales. Regulation 3 and Schedules 1 to 3 make provision in relation to essential ingredients for flour derived from common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), whether or not mixed with other flour. Regulation 3(2) and (3) prohibits the sale by persons producing flour in the course of a business, and the import or movement into Wales by persons acting in the course of a business and subsequent sale by them, of flour derived from common wheat that does not comply with the mandatory fortification requirements. The mandatory fortification requirements for flour derived from common wheat are prescribed by regulation 3(4), and Schedules 1 to 3. Schedule 1, paragraph 1, provides that flour derived from common wheat must be fortified with specified amounts of the prescribed forms of calcium carbonate and folic acid. There are specific and limited exceptions to the calcium carbonate fortification requirement. The folic acid fortification requirement applies from 13 December 2026. Schedule 1, paragraph 2(1), provides that flour derived from common wheat must contain minimum levels of iron, niacin and thiamin. Paragraph 2(2) makes provision in relation to the addition of prescribed forms of those substances where fortification is required to meet the minimum levels. Schedule 2 contains the specification for the permitted form of calcium carbonate. Schedule 3 contains the specification for one of the permitted forms of iron (iron powder). Specific exemptions from the mandatory fortification requirements for wholemeal flour, flour produced by small mills, and flour for use in certain specified products, are set out in regulation 3(5). See also regulations 6 and 7 for applicable general exemptions. Regulation 4 prohibits the use (by any person) of flour bleaching agents as food additives in the preparation of bread or flour (subject to the general exemptions in regulations 6 and 7). Regulation 5 imposes requirements on the use, as part of the name of bread (in the sale, advertising or labelling of the bread), of the terms “wholemeal” and “gwenith cyflawn”, “wheat germ” and “bywyn gwenith”, and equivalents to those terms in other languages (subject to the general exemptions in regulations 6 and 7). Regulations 6 and 7 contain general exemptions from regulations 3 to 5 for bread and flour produced for the following exempted uses— bread or flour that is not for human consumption; bread or flour that is for export to a third country, or for use in the production of food that is for export to a third country. Regulation 8 prohibits the use, by businesses in the production of food, of bread and flour that is exempted by regulations 3(5)(c), 3(5)(d), 6 or 7 other than for the exempted uses. Regulation 9 specifies that food authorities in Wales are responsible for the enforcement of the Regulations in their areas. Regulation 10 makes provision for authorised officers of the food authorities to use improvement notices to enforce the requirements of the Regulations. Regulation 11 provides that a failure to comply with an improvement notice is a criminal offence. Regulation 12 provides for appeal to a magistrates’ court against an improvement notice. Regulation 13 applies (with modifications) the following provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 to these Regulations— section 3 – the presumption that food is intended for human consumption; section 20, to enable proceedings for an offence under regulation 11 to be taken against a person other than the person who has failed to comply with an improvement notice, where the failure to comply is due to the act or default of that other person; section 21(1) and (5), to provide for a defence of due diligence; section 30(8), to provide for certificates as to the results of analysis of a sample to be accepted, in enforcement proceedings under these Regulations, as evidence of the facts stated in the certificate; sections 33 and 35(1) and (2), to make it an offence to intentionally obstruct persons acting in execution of these Regulations, or to fail to give such persons assistance or information when reasonably required to do so, or to give false or misleading information; sections 36 and 36A, as to how the offences apply to bodies corporate etc; section 44, to provide protection for authorised officers of food authorities acting in good faith in the enforcement of these Regulations; section 50, to apply requirements as to proper issuing of an improvement notice, and the date on which a notice is issued where that notice has been issued by post. Regulation 14 revokes, in relation to Wales, the Bread and Flour Regulations 1998. Regulation 15 makes transitional provision that has effect until the end of 12 December 2026, to enable flour to continue to be produced and placed on the market in Wales during the transitional period, in compliance with any of the fortification requirements of the Bread and Flour Regulations 1998 as they applied immediately before these Regulations came into force. Regulation 16 makes further transitional provision that takes effect from 13 December 2026 – the date that the folic acid fortification requirement comes into force. The provision enables stocks of bread and flour lawfully placed on the market or labelled before that date to continue to be marketed until the stocks are exhausted. The British Pharmacopeia 1973 and 2023, referred to in Schedule 1, may, for 1973, be inspected at the British Library Lending Division Boston Spa, Wetherby, West Yorkshire, L23 7BQ Tel 01937 546 060 and, for 2023, at shelfmark (B) 615.1141 in the Science 3 Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras site, 96 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DB. Further information, including in relation to documentation referenced in these Regulations, can be obtained from the Food Standards Agency in Wales, 4th Floor, Welsh Government Building, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ or by writing to regulated.products.wales@food.gov.uk. 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 in Wales (see above).

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 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person “commits 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