Agriculture and Forestry (Financial Provisions) Act 1991

2 Recovery of cost of supervising [F1EU] livestock carcase grading procedures.E+W+S

(1)The Minister may require the occupiers of slaughterhouses at which livestock carcases are required to be graded in pursuance of any [F1EU] obligation to pay to him in respect of the supervision of the grading by his officers such fees as he may with the approval of the Treasury specify.

(2)The fees shall be such as to secure, so far as practicable, that the amounts payable are sufficient, taking one year with another, to cover the cost of the supervision referred to in subsection (1) above.

(3)Different fees may be specified in relation to slaughterhouses of different classes or descriptions but this section shall not be construed as requiring the fees payable in the case of any particular slaughterhouse to be related to the cost of supervision at that slaughterhouse or as precluding exceptions from the liability to pay fees.

(4)Before making any decision as to the total fees to be recovered under this section or the method of apportioning them between the persons liable to pay them the Minister shall consult with such organisations as appear to him to be representative of those persons.

(5)The Minister may permit payment of any fees under this section by instalments and arrange for the refund, adjustment, set-off, waiver or reduction of the whole or part of any such fee in such cases as he may determine.

(6)The Minister may require the occupiers of slaughterhouses to keep and preserve such records, to make such annual or other returns and to provide him with such other information as he may reasonably require for the purpose of determining whether any and, if so, what fees are payable by them under this section.

(7)For the purpose of determining whether any and, if so, what fees are payable under this section by the occupier of any slaughterhouse any officer of the Minister may, on producing if required written evidence of his authority—

(a)enter and inspect that slaughterhouse and any carcase in it; and

(b)require the occupier to produce for inspection, and allow the officer to make a copy of, or extracts from, any records relevant for that purpose and remove any such record for a reasonable period.

(8)Any person who—

(a)without reasonable excuse fails to comply with a requirement imposed under subsection (6) or (7)(b) above; or

(b)intentionally obstructs any officer in the exercise of his powers under subsection (7)(a) above,

is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

(9)Any person who, for the purpose of avoiding payment, or payment in full, of any fee for which he is liable under this section, makes a statement which he knows to be false in a material particular or recklessly makes a statement which is false in a material particular is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

(10)Fees received by the Minister by virtue of this section shall be paid into the Consolidated Fund.

(11)In this section—

• “the Minister” means, in relation to England, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and, in relation to Wales or Scotland, the Secretary of State concerned with agriculture in those parts of the United Kingdom but arrangements may be made for any function of any of those Ministers or of the officers of any of those Ministers to be discharged by another of those Ministers or, as the case may be, the officers of another of those Ministers;

• “slaughterhouse” has, in England and Wales, the meaning given in section 34 of the M1Slaughterhouses Act 1974 and, in Scotland, the meaning given by section22 of the M2Slaughter of Animals (Scotland) Act 1980;

• “livestock” means cattle, sheep and pigs;

• “grading” includes weighing and marking.