Title and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Drinking Water in Containers Regulations 1994 and shall come into force on 1st April 1994.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations, except where the context otherwise requires—

“the Act” means the Food Safety Act 1990;

“bottle”, the noun, means a closed container of any kind in which water is sold for human consumption, and “bottle”, the verb, and cognate expressions, shall be construed accordingly;

“drinking water” means water intended for sale for human consumption in any bottle;

“parameter” means a property, element, organism or substance listed in the second column of the Tables in Part II of the Schedule to these Regulations;

“pesticides and related products” means any fungicide, herbicide or insecticide and polychlorinated biphenyls and terphenyls;

“prsecribed concentration or value”, in relation to any parameter, means the maximum concentration or value specified in relation to that parameter in the Tables in Part II of the Schedule to these Regulations as measured by reference to the unit of measurement so specifed;

“sell” includes possess for sale, or offer or expose or advertise for sale, and “sale” shall be construed accordingly.

Exemptions

3.  These Regulations shall not apply to any drinking water which—

(a)is recognised as a natural mineral water under the Natural Mineral Waters Regulations 1985(2); or

(b)is a medicinal product within the meaning of the Medicines Act 1968(3) in respect of which a product licence within the meaning of that Act is dor time being in force.

Bottling or sale of drinking water

4.—(1) No person shall bottle or sell any drinking water unless it satisfies the requirements of the Schedule to these Regulations.

(2) The concentrations or values of the parameters listed in the Tables in Part II of the Schedule shall be read in conjunction with the notes thereto.

(3) The methods of analysis to be used for the purposes of these Regulations shall accord with the requirements of Article 12(5) of Council Directive 80/778/EEC relating to the quality of water intended for human consumption(4).

(4) If any person contravenes paragraph (1) of this regulation he shall be guilty of an offence.

Defence in relation to exports

5.  In any proceedings for an offence under regulation 4 of these Regulations it shall be a defence for the person charged to prove that the drinking water, in respect of which the offence is alleged to have been committed, was intended for export and complied with the importing country’s domestic legislation relevant to the alleged offence.

Penalties

6.  A peson guilty of an offence under these Regulations shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

Enforcemetn

7.  Each food authority shall enforce and execute these Regulations within its area.

Application of various provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990

8.—(1) The following provisions of the Act shall apply for the purposes of these Regulations as they apply for the purposes of section 8, 14 or 15 of the Act and, unless the context otherwise requires, any reference in them to the Act shall be construed for the purposes of these Regulations as a reference to these Regulations—

(a)section 2 (extended meaning of “sale”, etc.);

(b)section 3 (presumptions that food is intended for human consumption);

(c)section 20 (offences due to fault of another person);

(d)section 21 (defence of due diligence);

(e)section 30(8) (which relates to documentary evidence);

(f)section 33 (obstruction etc. of officers);

(g)section 36 (offences by bodies corporate);

(h)section 44 (protection of officers acting in good faith).

(2) Section 8(3) (which makes presumptions in the case of batches, etc. of food) of the Act shall apply to drinking water which it is an offence to bottle or sell under these Regulations as it applies to food which fails to comply with food safety requirements.

(3) Section 9 (inspection and seizure of suspect food) of the Act shall apply to drinking water which it is an offence to bottle or sell under these Regulations as it applies to food which fails to comply with food safety requirements.

Regulation 4(1)

THE SCHEDULEREQUIREMENTS OF DRINKING WATER INCLUDING PRESCRIBED CONCENTRATIONS OR VALUES OF PARAMETERS

PART I:REQUIREMENTS OF DRINKING WATER

Drinking water satisfies the requirements of this Schedule where—

1.  the drinking water does not contain any property, element, organism or substance—

(a)(other than a parameter) at a concentration or value which would be injurious to health;

(b)(whether or not a parameter) at a concentration or value which in conjunction with any other property, element, organism or substance it contains (whether or not a parameter) would be injurious to health;

2.  the drinking water does not contain—

(a)concentrations or values of any of the parameters listed in Tables A to D in Part II of this Schedule in excess of the prescribed concentrations or values;

(b)concentrations of trihalomethanes (being the aggregate of the concentrations of trichloromethane, dichlorobromomethane, dibromochloromethane and tribromomethane) in excess of 100 μg/l;

3.  in the case of drinking water prepared from water which has been softened or desalinated, its hardness is not below a minimum concentration of 60 mg Ca/l and its alkalinity is not below a minimum concentration of 30 mg HCO₃/l.

PART II:PRESCRIBED CONCENTRATIONS OR VALUES

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations, which apply to Great Britain, implement the provisions of Council Directive 80/778/EEC (OJ No. L 229, 30.8.80, p. 11) relating to the quality of water intended for human consumption, in relation to drinking water which is bottled or sold in a bottle (as defined in regulation 2).

These Regulations do not apply to natural mineral waters or medicinal products (regulation 3).

The Regulations—

(a)prescribe the quality standards for drinking water sold in a bottle and provide that the bottling or sale of drinking water which fails to comply with any of those standards is an offence (regulation 4);

(b)provide a defence to a person who proves that the drinking water in respect of which the offence is alleged to have been committed was intended for export and complied with the importing country’s domestic legislation corresponding to that alleged offence (regulation 5);

(c)prescribe penalties upon conviction of an offence (regulation 6);

(d)require the food authorities to enforce the Regulations (regulation 7);

(e)apply specified provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 (regulation 8).

A copy of the Compliance Cost Assessment made for these Regulations has been placed in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament and copies can be obtained from the Consumer Protection Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food at Ergon House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR.