EXPLANATORY NOTE
(This note is not part of the Regulations)
1. These Regulations provide for the execution of Commission Regulation (EC) No. 152/2009 laying down the methods of sampling and analysis for the official control of feed, (“the Commission Regulation”). The Commission Regulation repeals and re-enacts with certain amendments a large number of European directives concerning methods of sampling and analysis of feeding stuffs. The Regulations revoke the Feeding Stuffs (Sampling and Analysis) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999, which implemented those directives, and re-enact those administrative provisions of the 1999 Regulations which need to be kept in operation.N.I.
2. These Regulations also, in Part 4, amend the Feeding Stuffs Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005 in order to implement Commission Directive 2009/141/EC amending Annex 1 to Directive 2002/32/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards maximum levels for arsenic, theobromine, Datura sp., Ricinus communis L., Croton tiglium L. and Abrus precatorius L., (“the Commission Directive”).N.I.
3. The Regulations put in place administrative and other measures for the execution of the Commission Regulation, in particular —N.I.
(a)providing for metric equivalents of imperial quantities mentioned in the Agriculture Act 1970 (regulation 3);
(b)prescribing the methods of sending samples for analysis (regulation 4);
(c)providing for the methods to be used where an analysis is carried out other than in the context of official controls (regulation 5); and
(d)prescribing the form to be used for a certificate of analysis (regulation 6 and Schedule 1).
4. The Regulations in Part 3 make textual changes to primary and secondary legislation in order to avoid any instances of overlap or inconsistency between the Commission Regulation and domestic legislation (regulations 7 to 22).N.I.
5. The Regulations implement the Commission Directive by amending provisions of the Feeding Stuffs Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005 concerning undesirable substances in animal feeds, notably in relation to maximum permitted levels for the substances mentioned in the title to the Commission Directive as set out in paragraph 2 above (regulation 24 and Schedule 2).N.I.