Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Animal Feedingstuffs from Belgium (Control) (No. 4) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 and shall come into operation on 14th October 1999.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations—

“the Control Order” means the Food (Animal and Animal Products from Belgium) (Emergency Control) (No. 4) Order (Northern Ireland) 1999(3);

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

“the Department” means the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland;

“enforcement officer” means an officer of the Department authorised by it to enforce and execute these Regulations; and

“the Order” means the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991(4).

(2) In these Regulations—

(a)other expressions which are also used in the Order have the same meaning as they have in that Order; and

(b)expressions which are also included in the Control Order have the same meaning as in that Order.

(3) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954(5) shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to a Measure of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Exemptions

3.—(1) Regulation 4 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);

(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 Commission Decision 1999/640/EC(6), of any controlled entity.

(2) Regulation 6 shall not apply to any imported controlled entity which is accompanied by valid certification relating to it as specified in paragraph (3) but Article 8(1) of the Order shall apply in relation to any such controlled entity, with the same modifications as are set out in regulation 6(2)(a) and (d) and with the ommission of the words “and paragraphs (3) to (9) shall apply where, on such an inspection, it appears to the authorised officer that any food fails to comply with food safety requirements”.

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

Prohibitions and offences

4.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2)—

(a)a person shall not 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)a person shall not possess, offer, expose, advertise, prepare, present, label, wrap, store or transport any such controlled entity for sale for that purpose;

(c)a person shall not consign, deliver or serve any such controlled entity by way of sale for that purpose;

(d)a person shall not derive material from any controlled entity for that purpose; and

(e)a person shall not import or export any controlled entity.

(2) Paragraph (1) shall not prohibit the bringing into Northern Ireland from a member State of any controlled entity in free circulation in that member State.

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

Enforcement

5.—(1) These Regulations shall be enforced and executed by the Department.

(2) For the purposes of the return from Northern Ireland to Belguim of any product as specified in Regulation 3(1)(c), the Department shall be the competent authority for the purposes of the official certificate referred to in that sub-paragraph.

(3) An enforcement officer shall have the same powers of entry for the purposes of the exercise of his functions under these Regulations as are bestowed on an authorised officer by Article 33 of the Order for the purposes of the Order or regulations or orders made under the Order and shall also have, in relation to any business producing material to feed to animals, the same power as an authorised officer has under that Article in relation to a food business.

Application and modification of various provisions of the Order

6.—(1) Article 8 of the Order (inspection and seizure of suspected food) shall apply for the purposes of these Regulations, subject to the modifications set out in paragraph (2).

(2) The modifications of Article 8 of the Order referred to in paragraph (1) are as follows—

(a)paragraphs (1) and (2) shall extend to any creature, product or material which appears to an enforcement officer to come within the definition of “controlled entity” in regulation 2(1); and

(b)paragraphs (3) to (8) shall apply—

(i)to any creature, product or material falling within sub-paragraph (a) as it applies to food which appears to an enforcement 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;

(c)paragraphs (3) to (8) shall also apply as if—

(i)each reference to human consumption was a reference to animal consumption;

(ii)where a notice under paragraph (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;

(iii)paragraph (6) applied 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 had effect so that a justice of the peace may only decline to condemn any creature, product or material falling within that paragraph 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 3(1)(c); and

(d)any reference to—

(i)a district council or Northern Ireland Department shall be treated as if it were a reference to the Department;

(ii)an authorised officer shall be treated as if it were a reference to an enforcement officer; and

(e)paragraph (9) shall be omitted.

(3) The following provisions of the Order shall apply for the purposes of these Regulations and any reference in those provisions to the Order shall be construed, for the purposes of these Regulations as a reference to these Regulations—

(a)Article 34 (obstruction etc. of officers);

(b)Article 36(1) (punishment of offences) as far as it relates to offences under Article 34 as applied by sub-paragraph (a);

(c)Article 36(2) in so far as it relates to offences under Article 8 as applied to paragraph (1); and

(d)Article 43 (protection of public analyst acting in good faith).

Revocation

7.  The Animal Feedingstuffs from Belgium (Control) (No. 3) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999(7) are hereby revoked.

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations revoke and re-enact with certain changes the Animal Feedingstuffs from Belgium (Control) (No. 3) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 (“the revoked Regulations”) and implement, 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 animal origin intended for human or animal consumption (O.J. No. L253, 28.9.99, p. 19). Like the revoked Regulations, these Regulations—

(a)define “controlled entity” (regulation 2) and prohibit, subject to exceptions (regulation 3), the carrying out of specified operations with respect thereto (regulation 4);

(b)specify the enforcement authorities (regulation 5); and

(c)apply, with modifications, provisions of the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 (regulation 6).

The Regulations make the following changes of substance—

(a)the coverage of the controls is narrower when compared to the revoked Regulations 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)however in the case of those categories of product, 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 the Regulations apply irrespective of whether, in the case of poultry, pigs and eggs, these were reared/produced in holdings placed under restriction by Belgium 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)) 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 apply, they reflect the fact that the return of products to Belgium, in accordance with Article 5 of Decision 1999/640/EC, is now again permitted.