Title, commencement, extent and interpretation

1.-(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Animal Feedingstuffs from Belgium (Control) (England and Wales) (No. 3) Regulations 1999, shall come into force on 12th October 1999 and shall extend to England and Wales.

(2) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires-

"the Act" means the Food Safety Act 1990(3) and any expressions used both in these Regulations and in the Act have the meaning they bear in the Act;

"controlled entity" means any creature, product or material which is excluded from the definition of "relevant animal or animal product" in the Order solely by reason that it is neither food nor a food source; and

"the Order" means the Food (Animals and Animal Products from Belgium) (Emergency Control) (England and Wales) (No. 3) Order 1999(4) and any expressions used both in these Regulations and in the Order have the meaning they bear in the Order.

Exemptions

2.-(1) Regulation 3 of these Regulations shall not apply to-

(a)the importation of any controlled entity if, when imported, that controlled entity is accompanied by valid certification relating to it, as specified in paragraph (3) below;

(b)any subsequent activity in relation to the controlled entity, if it can be proved by the person carrying out the activity that at the time of importation it was so accompanied; or

(c)the return to Belgium, under cover of an official certificate in accordance with Article 5 of the Commission Decision, of any controlled entity.

(2) Regulation 5 of these Regulations shall not, save for sub-paragraphs (a) and (b) of paragraph (1) thereof, apply to any imported controlled entity which is accompanied by valid certification relating to it as specified in paragraph (3) below.

(3) The certification to which paragraphs (1)(a) and (b) and (2) above apply is the certification which would have applied in relation to the controlled entity by virtue of Article 2 of the Order, had the Order extended to controlled entities.

Prohibitions and offence

3.-(1) Subject to paragraph (2) below-

(a)no person shall sell any controlled entity which is not a live creature for the purpose of its being used to feed to an animal or in the manufacture of a product for such use;

(b)no person shall possess, offer, expose, advertise, prepare, present, label, wrap, store or transport any such controlled entity for sale for that purpose;

(c)no person shall consign, deliver or serve any such controlled entity by way of sale for that purpose;

(d)no person shall derive material from any controlled entity for that purpose; and

(e)no person shall import or export any controlled entity.

(2) Paragraph (1) above shall not be taken to prohibit the bringing into England and Wales, from a member State, of any controlled entity in free circulation in that member State.

(3) Any person who knowingly contravenes paragraph (1) above shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or imprisonment not exceeding three months.

Enforcement

4.-(1) These Regulations shall be enforced and executed by each relevant authority, namely the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Secretary of State and each food authority and port health authority within its area or district, as appropriate.

(2) For the purposes of the return to Belgium of any product as specified in regulation 2(1)(c) of these Regulations, the competent authority for the purposes of the official certificate shall be the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Secretary of State, any authorised officer of a food authority or any inspector appointed by such an authority, where it is also an authority with responsibilities under section 67 of the Agriculture Act 1970(5).

(3) An authorised officer of a relevant authority shall have the same powers of entry for the purposes of the exercise of that duty as are bestowed on an authorised officer of an enforcement authority by section 32 of the Act for purposes connected with the Act or regulations or orders under the Act, and shall also have, in relation to any business producing material to feed to animals, the same power as an authorised officer of an enforcement authority has under that section in relation to a food business.

(4) Each port health authority or food authority, as appropriate, shall give such assistance and information to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food or the Secretary of State as he may request in connection with the implementation of the Commission Decision in relation to controlled entities.

Application and modification of various provisions of the Act

5.-(1) Section 9 of the Act (inspection and seizure of suspected food) shall apply for the purposes of these Regulations, subject to the following modifications-

(a)the references in subsections (1) and (2) to "food authority" shall be construed as including reference to a port health authority, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Secretary of State;

(b)subsections (1) and (2) shall extend to any creature, product or material which appears to an authorised officer to come within the definition of "controlled entity";

(c)subsections (3) to (9) shall apply-

(i)to any creature, product or material falling within sub-paragraph (b) above as it applies to food which appears to an authorised officer to fail to comply with food safety requirements or to be likely to cause food poisoning or any disease communicable to human beings, and

(ii)to any controlled entity as if it were food which failed to comply with food safety requirements,

save that each reference to human consumption shall be taken as a reference to animal consumption, that where a notice under subsection (3)(a)(i) is given in relation to a live creature, the notice is to relate to material which may come to be derived from the live creature, that subsection (6) thereof shall apply in relation to the destruction or disposal of a live creature so as to prevent any material which may come to be derived from it from being used for animal consumption and that a justice of the peace shall decline to condemn any creature, product or material falling within sub-paragraph (b) above under subsection (6) thereof if and only if it is proved to him that it does not comprise a controlled entity or is to be returned to Belgium as specified in regulation 2(1)(c) of these Regulations.

(2) The following provisions of the Act shall apply, subject to paragraph (3) below, for the purposes of these Regulations and any reference in those provisions to the Act shall be construed for the purposes of these Regulations as a reference to these Regulations-

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

(b)section 35(1) (punishment of offences) in so far as it relates to offences under section 33 as applied by sub-paragraph (a) above; and

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

(3) In section 44 of the Act the references to "food authority" shall be construed as including reference to a port health authority.

Revocation

6. The Animal Feedingstuffs from Belgium (Control) (England and Wales) (No. 2) Regulations 1999(6) are hereby revoked.

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations, which apply to England and Wales, revoke, and re-enact with certain changes, the Animal Feedingstuffs from Belgium (Control) (England and Wales) (No. 2) Regulations 1999 (S.I. 1999/2333 "the revoked Regulations") and implement in England and Wales, in relation to products for animal feeding, Commission Decision 1999/640/EC on protective measures with regard to contamination by dioxins of certain products of porcine and poultry origin intended for human or animal consumption (OJ No. L253, 28.9.1999, p.19).

Like the revoked Regulations, these Regulations define `controlled entity' (regulation 1(2)), prohibit (subject to exceptions (regulation 2)) the carrying out of specified operations in relation to them (regulation 3), specify the enforcement authorities (regulation 4) and apply with modifications provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 (regulation 5).

In addition to making minor changes to the revoked Regulations, these Regulations, by referring to Decision 1999/640/EC, make the following changes of substance-

(a)they narrow the coverage of the revoked Order in that-

(i)they do not apply to bovine animals, but only to pigs and poultry, and

(ii)in relation to the categories of product derived from pigs and poultry to which they apply, they exclude certain material from the category "meat products and other products of animal origin";

(b)as a consequence of the fact that products of bovine animals are no longer controlled, they remove the exclusion of milk fat previously contained in the category "products intended for human consumption which contain other products of porcine or poultry origin, which contain more than 2% of animal fat";

(c)the controls in them apply irrespective of whether, in the case of poultry, pigs and eggs, these were reared/produced in holdings placed under restriction by Belgian authorities or, in the case of products derived from poultry or pigs, whether the animals concerned were so reared;

(d)they reflect changes (consequential on the changes referred to in (a) to (c) above) to the certification requirements for the importation from Belgium of animals and animal products controlled by these Regulations, including the fact that there are no longer any conditions restricting the issue by Belgium of such certification, and

(e)because those conditions no longer apply, they reflect the fact that the return of products to Belgium, in accordance with procedures set out in Article 5 of Decision 1999/640/EC, is now again permitted.