The Food Protection (Emergency Prohibitions) Amendment No. 4 Order 1988

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

The Food Protection (Emergency Prohibitions) Order 1988 (“the principal Order”) contains emergency prohibitions restricting various activities in order to prevent human consumption of food which has been or which may have been rendered unsuitable for that purpose in consequence of the escape of radioactive substances from a nuclear reactor situated at Chernobyl in the Ukraine, USSR.

The principal Order made certain exceptions to the following prohibitions imposed by articles 4, 5 and 6 of that Order:—

(a) the prohibition on slaughter of sheep in any of the designated areas;

(b) the prohibition on movement of sheep;

(c) the prohibition applying throughout the United Kingdom on the slaughter of, and the supply of meat derived from, any sheep which has been in the designated areas.

The Food Protection (Emergency Prohibitions) Amendment No. 3 Order 1988 (S.I. 1988/1675), which made certain amendments to the principal Order, ceases to have effect as at 31st October 1988. The amendments made by that Order require to be kept in force and are accordingly re-enacted in this Order. The Amendment No. 3 Order revised the exceptions in the principal Order as follows:—

(i) to except from the prohibition applying throughout the United Kingdom on slaughter of, and the supply of meat derived from, any sheep which has been marked (in accordance with a consent given under section 2(1) of the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985) with a blue paint mark on or after 3rd October 1988 and which has been examined and marked with an ear-tag by a person authorised by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food or the Secretary of State for Scotland or Wales, or the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland (article 3(3));

(ii) to except from the prohibition on movement, any sheep which was moved from any place in accordance with a consent given on or after 3rd October 1988 which consent was subject to the condition that the sheep to which it applies should be marked with a blue paint mark (article 3(2)).

And introduced the following prohibition:—

the movement into the designated areas of sheep which have been removed from those areas or from a similarly designated area elsewhere in the United Kingdom (other than sheep which have been marked with a red paint mark and moved in accordance with such a consent or sheep moved unmarked in accordance with a consent) is prohibited (article 3(2)).

The Order continues the exception to the prohibition applying throughout the United Kingdom on the slaughter of, and the supply of meat derived from, any sheep which has been marked (in accordance with such a consent) with a green paint mark on or after 1st August 1988 and which has been examined and marked with an ear-tag by a person authorised by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food or the Secretary of State for Scotland or Wales, or the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland (article 3(3)).

The exceptions to the prohibitions imposed by articles 4 and 6 of the principal Order are also extended so as to except from the prohibitions on slaughter and from the said prohibition on the supply of meat, any sheep which has been marked (in accordance with such a consent) with a red paint mark and which has been examined and marked with an ear-tag by a person authorised by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food or the Secretary of State for Scotland or Wales, or the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland (article 3(1) and (3)).