The Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) (Charges) Regulations 1998

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations implement in Great Britain the provisions relating to charges for meat hygiene inspections of Council Directive 85/73/EEC on the financing of veterinary inspections and controls covered by Directives 89/662/EEC, 90/425/EEC, 90/675/EEC and 91/496/EEC of which an amended and consolidated text is annexed to Council Directive 96/43/EC (OJ No. L162, 1.7.96, p.1). In pursuance of Article 4 of Council Directive 85/73/EEC, they also provide for a charge to be levied in relation to hygiene inspection at slaughter of other land mammals and birds for which no standard charge is specified. The charges encompass any monitoring of the welfare of animals slaughtered for human consumption in slaughterhouses carried out under the Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) Regulations 1995 (S.I. 1995/731).

The Regulations require the Minister to notify the occupiers of slaughterhouses, cutting premises and cold stores (as defined in regulation 2) of the inspection charge (calculated in accordance with the Schedule) in relation to inspections carried out there as soon as possible after the end of each accounting period, and provide that any charge so notified is payable by the occupier concerned to the Minister and is recoverable on demand as a debt (regulation 3).

The Schedule to the Regulations sets out how the inspection charge is to be calculated. It requires the Minister to determine hourly rates for use in the calculation of the charge, after consultation with such occupiers as are likely to be affected by the rates.

The Regulations require the Minister to be supplied on demand with such information as he may reasonably require to calculate the inspection charge, and with such further information as he requires to verify that information. Knowingly or recklessly supplying information which is false or misleading in a material particular is an offence, as is failure to supply the information required within a reasonable time and without reasonable excuse (regulation 4).

The Regulations revoke the Meat (Hygiene, Inspection and Examinations for Residues) (Charges) Regulations 1995 (S.I. 1995/361) (regulation 5).

A regulatory appraisal has been prepared and placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Copies of that appraisal can be obtained from the Meat Hygiene Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Ergon House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR.