Keeping and retention of records
31.—(1) The owner of an establishment of initial processing of animal products must keep such records as are sufficient, either alone or in combination with records or information held by some other person, to enable the animals from which those animal products were derived, and the farm of origin or departure of those animals, to be identified.
(2) Persons holding a manufacturing or wholesale dealer’s authorisation granted under the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013, for purposes relating to a marketing authorisation for a product to which regulation 4 applies, must, in relation to hormonal substances and beta-agonists, keep a record in chronological order of—
(a)quantities produced;
(b)quantities purchased or otherwise acquired and from whom each quantity was purchased or acquired;
(c)quantities sold and to whom each quantity was sold; and
(d)quantities used in the production of pharmaceutical or veterinary medicinal products.
(3) Any person required to keep a record by paragraph (1) or (2) must keep that record in a permanent and legible form and must retain that record for a period of three years from the end of the calendar year to which such record relates save in the case of a prescription intended to show that withdrawal periods have been observed, which must be retained for a period of five years from the date of the commencement of the withdrawal period to which it relates.
(4) Subject to paragraph (5) if an authorised officer directs a person to produce for inspection a record which paragraph (1) or (2) requires that person to keep, the person must comply with the direction.
(5) No direction may be given under paragraph (4) after the end of the period mentioned in paragraph (3).
(6) The requirement in paragraph (3) to keep records in a legible form is not to be taken to prevent their being kept by means of computer.
(7) Where a record is so kept, the duty under paragraph (4) to produce it for inspection, is a duty to produce it in a form in which it can be taken away.