Food Standards Act 1999

35 Devolution in Scotland and Northern Ireland

(1) For the purposes of—

(a) section 23(2)(b) of the [1998 c. 46.] Scotland Act 1998 (power of Scottish Parliament to require persons outside Scotland to attend to give evidence or produce documents); and

(b) section 70(6) of that Act (accounts prepared by cross-border bodies),

the Agency shall be treated as a cross-border public authority (within the meaning of that Act).

(2) It is not outside the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament, by virtue of the reservation of matters relating to the constitution mentioned in paragraph 1 of Schedule 5 to that Act, to remove, alter or confer relevant functions of the Agency which are exercisable in or as regards Scotland.

(3) Nothing in subsection (2) affects any legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament apart from this section.

(4) Relevant functions of the Agency in relation to Northern Ireland shall be regarded as functions of a Minister of the Crown for the purposes of paragraph 1(a) of Schedule 2 to the [1998 c. 47.] Northern Ireland Act 1998 (excepted matters).

(5) In this section “relevant functions of the Agency” means functions relating to, or to matters connected with—

(a) food safety or other interests of consumers in relation to food; or

(b) the safety of animal feedingstuffs or other interests of users of animal feedingstuffs.