Prosecutions Under the Food Regulations
| DOI | 10.1177/002201834000400212 |
| Published date | 01 April 1940 |
| Date | 01 April 1940 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Prosecutions Under
the
Food
Regulations
CONTRAVENTIONS
of
the
various
Food
Regulations
are offences against
the
Defence Regulations. Prosecu-
tions are ordinarily instituted either by one of
the
Divisional
Officers of
the
Ministry
of
Food
or by a local
Food
Control
Committee. As it is not at first sight easy to see how
the
power to prosecute is derived,
and
it has even been suggested,
quite wrongly,
that
the
consent of
the
Director
of Public
Prosecutions
must
first be obtained, it may be useful to
examine
the
relevant articles of
the
Defence Regulations
with some care.
Article 93
(I)
provides that, .• without prejudice to any
special provisions contained in these Regulations, no
prosecution in respect of an offence against any of these
Regulations shall be instituted otherwise
than
either by a
constable, or by, or with
the
consent of,
the
Director
of
Public Prosecutions."
Diligent search reveals
such
a
"special
provision"
in
Part
IV
of
the
Regulations, Article 78
(I),
which provides
that
"Notwithstanding
any restriction imposed by any
of
the
following regulations, aprosecution in respect of an
offence against any regulation contained in this
part
of these
regulations may be instituted by or on behalf of a competent
authority for
the
purposes of
that
regulation, or by any
such
authority
or
person as may be specified by an
order
of a competent authority for
the
purposes of
that
regulation ".
It
is necessary. therefore, to establish an offence against
some regulation in
Part
IV. Now, all
the
Food
Regulations
are made
under
Regulation 55, which is in
Part
IV.
But
on
the
face of it Regulation 55
purports
only to be an empowering
236
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