The Heads of Sheep and Goats Order (Northern Ireland) 1996

Statutory Rules of Northern Ireland

1996 No. 427

ANIMALS

The Heads of Sheep and Goats Order (Northern Ireland) 1996

Made

14th September 1996

Coming into operation

16th September 1996

The Department of Agriculture, in exercise of the powers conferred on it by Articles 5(1), 19(b) and (e), 29(1) and (2), 44 and 60(1) of the Diseases of Animals (Northern Ireland) Order 1981(1) and of every other power enabling it in that behalf, hereby makes the following Order:

Citation and commencement

1.  This Order may be cited as the Heads of Sheep and Goats Order (Northern Ireland) 1996 and shall come into operation on 16th September 1996.

Interpretation

2.  In this Order—

“the HSGTD Regulations” means the Heads of Sheep and Goats (Treatment and Disposal) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996(2);

“the SBM Order” means the Specified Bovine Material (No. 2) Order (Northern Ireland) 1996(3); and

“the SBMTD Regulations” means the Specified Bovine Material (Treatment and Disposal) (No. 3) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996(4).

Rendering whole carcases

3.  Any person rendering the whole carcase of a sheep or goat shall do so in accordance with Article 6 of the SBM Order as if the carcase were specified bovine material.

Consignment of heads of sheep or goats

4.—(1) Once the head has been removed from the carcase of a sheep or goat and treated in accordance with the requirements of the HSGTD Regulations, the person responsible for its removal from the carcase shall, without unreasonable delay, send it directly to—

(a) a collection centre approved under and for the purposes of the SBM Order;

(b) a rendering plant approved under and for the purposes of the SBM Order;

(c) premises specified in regulation 6(a) of the HSGTD Regulations;

(d) an incinerator approved under and for the purposes of the SBMTD Regulations; or

(e) any premises licenced by the Department under and for the purposes of Article 8(1) of the SBM Order,

where it shall be treated in the same way as if it were specified bovine material and for that purpose Articles 5(2) to (6), 6(2) to (9), 8(2) and (3) and 10 of the SBM Order shall apply in relation to a head removed from the carcase of a sheep or goat as if that head were specified bovine material.

(2) Any person consigning the head of a sheep or goat from the place where it was removed from the carcase shall keep, for 2 years from the date of consignment, a record indicating the date of the consignment, destination and weight consigned.

Prohibition on bringing in heads of sheep or goats from Great Britain

5.—(1) A person shall not bring the head of a sheep or goat into Northern Ireland from Great Britain unless it has been stained in accordance with legislation having effect in Great Britain and corresponding to provisions in the HSGTD Regulations relating to staining or it is exempt from the requirement to stain under the legislation having effect in Great Britain as it would be under regulation 6 of the HSGTD Regulations.

(2) Any person bringing the head of a sheep or goat into Northern Ireland from Great Britain shall immediately transport it to one of the destinations specified in Article 4(1).

(3) In paragraph (1), “stain” has the same meaning as in the HSGTD Regulations.

Records

6.—(1) A record required by this Order to be kept shall be made in permanent and legible form.

(2) A person required by this Order to keep a record shall on demand made at any reasonable time by a veterinary officer or other authorised officer of the Department produce to him that record and such inspector or officer shall be entitled to inspect that record and to copy or take extracts therefrom.

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of Agriculture on 14th September 1996.

L.S.

Liam McKibben

Assistant Secretary

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order.)

This Order requires that heads removed from the carcases of sheep or goats shall be consigned to certain specified premises and disposed of as if they were specified bovine material (Article 4). To this end various provisions of the Specified Bovine Material (No. 2) Order (Northern Ireland) 1996 are applied in relation to the heads of sheep and goats as they apply to specified bovine material (Article 4).

The Order also regulates the rendering of whole carcases of sheep and goats (Article 3) and the importation of sheep and goat heads from Great Britain (Article 5). It also imposes certain requirements in relation to the keeping of records (Article 6).

Any person who without lawful authority or excuse, proof of which shall lie on him, contravenes any provision of the Order shall be guilty of an offence against the Diseases of Animals (Northern Ireland) Order 1981. The penalty on summary conviction is in the case of an offence committed in relation to carcases or other inanimate things, a fine at level 5 on the standard scale (currently £5,000) together with a further fine at level 3 on the standard scale (currently £1,000) in respect of every 508 kilogrammes in weight of the carcases or other things after the first 508 kilogrammes.

(1)

S.I. 1981/1115 (N.I. 22) as amended by S.I. 1984/702 (N.I. 2) Art. 17 and S.I. 1994/1891 (N.I. 6) Arts. 19, 22, 23(1), (2) and (3), 24(1) and Schedule

(2)

S.R. 1996 No. 428

(3)

S.R. 1996 No. 360

(4)

S.R. 1996 No. 390