Title, commencement, extent and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Fertilisers (Amendment) Regulations 1998 and shall come into force on the following dates—

(a)all provisions except regulation 7(b) and Schedule 2, on 16th September 1998, and

(b)regulation 7(b) and Schedule 2 on 1st January 1999.

(2) In these Regulations “the principal Regulations” means the Fertilisers Regulations 1991(4).

Amendment of the principal Regulations

2.  Subject to regulation 8 below, the principal Regulations are hereby further amended in accordance with regulations 3 to 7 below.

3.  In regulation 1 (title, commencement and interpretation), paragraphs (2) and (3) shall be deleted.

4.  After regulation 1 (title, commencement and interpretation) there shall be inserted the following regulation:

“Control of materials designated as EEC fertilisers

1A.—(1) No person shall—

(a)designate as an EEC fertiliser any material intended for use as a fertiliser, or give any indication, directly or indirectly, that it is an EEC fertiliser, or

(b)sell or have in possession with a view to sale, for use as a fertiliser, any material so designated, or in respect of which any such indication is given,

unless any packaging, label or accompanying document by means of which the designation was effected or, as the case may be, the indication was given, was used before 1st January 1999.

(2) In relation to any material intended for use as a fertiliser, no designation of it as an EC fertiliser, or indication that it is such a fertiliser, shall, if permitted by regulation 2, be treated, for the purposes of paragraph (1) above, as any type of indication that the material is an EEC fertiliser.

(3) In paragraph (1) of this regulation, expressions also used in Article 2 of Directive 97/63/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directives 76/116/EEC, 80/876/EEC, 89/284/EEC and 89/530/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to fertilisers(5) shall be construed in accordance with that Article.”.

5.  For each of the expressions listed in the first column of Part I of Schedule 1 to these Regulations, wherever the expression concerned appears in the principal Regulations there shall be substituted the expression listed opposite to that expression in the second column of that Part.

6.  For each of the expressions listed in the first column of Part II of Schedule 1 to these Regulations, wherever the expression concerned appears in the principal Regulations, there shall be substituted the expression listed opposite to that expression in the second column of that Part.

7.  In the table in Schedule 1 (prescribed descriptions of material, meanings of names, particulars and information to be contained in the statutory statement and limits of variation)—

(a)for the expression “EEC fertiliser”, wherever it appears as a heading in Groups 1 to 3 of Section B (compound fertilisers) and Group 2 of Section C (fluid fertilisers), there shall be substituted the heading “EC fertiliser”; and

(b)in Group 1(a) of Section C (fluid fertilisers), after the provisions relating to the material Magnesium nitrate solution, there shall be inserted in columns (2) to (5) the contents of Schedule 2 to these Regulations.

Transitional provision

8.  The amendments to the principal Regulations made by regulations 5 and 7(a) above shall not affect any material designated as an EEC fertiliser, or in respect of which any indication is given, directly or indirectly, that it is an EEC fertiliser, and which is—

(a)sold, offered for sale or held in possession with a view to sale, for use as a fertiliser, or

(b)made available to any other person for the final use by that other person as a fertiliser,

(as the case may be)—

(i)before 1st January 1999, or

(ii)on or after that date, where any packaging, label or accompanying document by means of which the designation was effected or, as the case may be, the indication was given, was used before that date,

and, in relation to any such material, the principal Regulations shall continue to apply, as if those amendments had not been made.

regulations 5 and 6

SCHEDULE 1EXPRESSIONS SUBSTITUTED FOR EXPRESSIONS APPEARING IN THE PRINCIPAL REGULATIONS

PART I

PART II

regulation 7(b)

SCHEDULE 2PROVISIONS INSERTED IN GROUP 1(a) OF SECTION C OF THE TABLE IN SCHEDULE 1 TO THE PRINCIPAL REGULATIONS

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend further the Fertilisers Regulations 1991 (“the principal Regulations”) and implement:

• Directive 97/63/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ No. L335, 6.12.97, p.15) amending Directives 76/116/EEC, 80/876/EEC, 89/284/EEC and 89/530/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to fertilisers; and

• Commission Directive 98/3/EC (OJ No. L18, 23.1.98, p.25) adapting to technical progress Council Directive 76/116/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to fertilisers.

The principal changes effected by the Regulations are as follows:

(a)the substitution, for the controls in the principal Regulations on the use in relation to fertilisers of the term “EEC fertilisers”, of corresponding controls on the use of the term “EC fertilisers” (regulations 5 and 7(a) and Schedule 1 Part I), subject to transitional provisions for EEC fertilisers applicable before 1st January 1999 and, in specified circumstances, after that date (regulation 8);

(b)the making of consequential amendments in respect of fertilisers in relation to which neither the term “EEC fertilisers” nor the term “EC fertilisers” has been used (regulation 6 and Schedule 1 Part II);

(c)the prohibition of the use of the term “EEC fertiliser” save in specified circumstances (regulation 4); and

(d)the amendment (with effect from 1st January 1999) of Schedule 1 to the principal Regulations (which relates to prescribed descriptions of material, meanings of names, particulars and information to be contained in the statutory statement and limits of variation) as regards fertilisers specified in the Table to that Schedule, by specification of additional fertilisers which may be designated as “EC fertilisers”.