The Food Protection (Emergency Prohibitions) (Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning) (No. 12) Order 1991

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order contains emergency prohibitions restricting various activities in order to prevent human consumption of food rendered unsuitable for that purpose by virtue of shellfish having been affected by the toxin which causes paralytic shellfish poisoning in human beings.

The emergency prohibitions imposed by the Food Protection (Emergency Prohibitions) (Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning) (No. 11) 1991 Order require to be imposed on a larger area of the sea surrounding all the Orkney islands. Accordingly, the area of sea already designated in the Schedule to that Order requires to be extended. This Order redesignates the area within which fishing for, or taking green crabs or velvet crabs is prohibited (articles 3 and 4 and the Schedule). It prohibits the movement of green crabs or velvet crabs out of that area (article 5). Other restrictions are imposed throughout the United Kingdom in relation to the use of any green crabs or velvet crabs taken from that area.

This Order re-enacts the emergency prohibitions which are imposed on the area described in the Schedule to this Order. This Order revokes the Food Protection (Emergency Prohibitions) (Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning) (No. 11) Order 1991.

Under section 21 of the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 the penalty for contravening an emergency prohibition is—

a. on summary conviction, a fine of an amount not exceeding the statutory maximum (at present £2,000);

b. on conviction on indictment, an unlimited fine, or imprisonment for a term of not more than two years, or both.

Powers of enforcement in relation to emergency prohibitions are conferred by section 4 of, and Schedule 2 to, the 1985 Act. Obstruction of enforcement officers is an offence under paragraph 10 of that Schedule.