The Poultry Meat, Farmed Game Bird Meat and Rabbit Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2001

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

1.  These Regulations amend the Poultry Meat, Farmed Game Bird Meat and Rabbit Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) Regulations 1995 (“the Regulations”) insofar as those Regulations extend to England. The Regulations extend to the whole of Great Britain. The amendments have effect to—

(a) disapply the Regulations insofar as farmers and producers with a limited annual production of birds or rabbits make certain sales, primarily of a retail nature (regulation 2(2) to (5));

(b) prohibit a person from operating a licensed low throughput slaughterhouse unless he has notified the Food Standards Agency of the number and origin of the birds and rabbits to be slaughtered there (regulation 2(6));

(c) revoke regulation 15(3) (exemption from requirement for fresh meat to be accompanied by transport documentation) and make consequential amendments to regulation 15(1) and (2) (regulation 2(7) and (8));

(d) amend regulation 18(1)(a)(i) (duty of occupier to keep records) to require the occupier of licensed premises to record the origin of meat entering the premises (regulation 2(9));

(e) amend the requirements in paragraph 5 of Part I of Schedule 5 in relation to refrigeration equipment in low throughput slaughterhouses and low throughput cutting premises (regulation 2(10));

(f) correct an error in paragraph 11 of Schedule 8 (regulation 2(11)); and

(g) amend the requirements in paragraph 1(a) of Schedule 14 in relation to the transport of fresh meat of birds from low throughput slaughterhouses and low throughput cutting premises (regulation 2(12)).

2.  The amendments made by these Regulations come into force on 1st February 2002, except for those made by paragraphs (2), (3), (4) and (5) of regulation 2, which come into force on 1st December 2002.

3.  These Regulations implement in part the provisions of—

(a) Council Directive 91/495/EEC concerning public health and animal health problems affecting the production and placing on the market of rabbit meat and farmed game meat (OJ No. L268, 24.9.91, p.41); and

(b) Council Directive 71/118/EEC on health problems affecting the production and placing on the market of fresh poultry meat, a consolidated text of which is annexed to Council Directive 92/116/EEC (OJ No. L62, 15.3.93, p.1).

4.  Regulation 3 (made under section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972) makes a consequential amendment to the Products of Animal Origin (Import and Export) Regulations 1996 insofar as they extend to England.

5.  A regulatory impact assessment, which includes a compliance cost assessment of the effect that they are likely to have on business costs, has been prepared for these Regulations and has been placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Copies can be obtained from the Meat Hygiene Division (White Meat Branch) of the Food Standards Agency, Aviation House, 125 Kingsway, London WC2B 6NH.