Food Safety (Fishery Products and Live Shellfish) (Hygiene) (Amendment No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations further amend the Food Safety (Fishery Products and Live Shellfish) (Hygiene) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998 (“the principal Regulations”) to give effect to the provisions of Council Directive 96/43/EC which relate to the financing of hygiene inspections of fishery products. Regulation 9 makes a technical amendment to the Food Safety (Fishery Products and Live Shellfish) (Hygiene) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 which relates to the introduction of standard registration documents for the movement of live shellfish.

Regulation 6 substitutes a new Part for Part V of the principal Regulations and regulation 47 of the new Part gives effect to Schedule 4A. Regulation 8 and the Schedule insert Schedule 4A in the principal Regulations.

Part I of the Schedule contains definitions and other general provisions.

Part II of the Schedule makes provision for district councils to recover a contribution towards the costs of carrying out inspections required under Chapter V of Schedule 3 to the principal Regulations in respect of fishery products landed from a vessel of a member State, an EEA State or Greenland (paragraph 2). It also makes provision for additional charges in relation to fishery products landed from factory ships (paragraph 5), the inspection of factory ships abroad (paragraph 9), fishery products entering preparation or processing establishments (paragraph 10) and fishery products entering other establishments in which fishery products are only chilled, frozen, packaged or stored (paragraph 14). The charges payable under Part II are new.

Under Part II the level of the contribution is: euro 1 per tonne in respect of the first 50 tonnes of fishery products landed and euro 0.5 per tonne thereafter; an additional euro 1 per tonne for fishery products landed from factory ships; euro 1 per tonne for fishery products entering preparation or processing establishments; the actual costs of inspecting other establishments and the actual costs of inspecting factory ships which are abroad. Some of the charges may be reduced by 55% in certain circumstances (paragraphs 3, 7 and 12). An appeal to a court of summary jurisdiction lies against the amount of the charges (paragraph 7 of Part I).

Part III of the Schedule contains similar provisions which enable district councils to recover a contribution towards the costs of carrying out inspections required under Chapter V of Schedule 3 to the principal Regulations in respect of fishery products directly landed from a fishing vessel of any other country (paragraph 2). Part III provides for charges which have been payable under Part V of the principal Regulations.

In addition these Regulations make minor amendments, including those to provisions which relate to direct transfers of live shellfish and fishery products on local markets (regulations 3 and 5), persons responsible for auction and wholesale markets (regulation 4) and the hygiene conditions in fishery products establishments and markets on land (regulation 7).