The Specified Risk Material (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2001

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations are made by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to make two changes to the processing requirements at rendering plants in England approved by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food under the Specified Risk Material Regulations 1997.

The first change gives effect to articles 3.1 and 7(b) of, and paragraph 3(b)(ii) of Annex I to, Commission Decision 2000/418/EC (OJ No. L 158, 30.6.2000, p. 76) regulating the use of material presenting risks as regards transmissible spongiform encephalopathies and amending Decision 94/474/EC. Specified risk material which is to be buried at licensed landfill sites must first have been processed at an approved rendering plant in accordance with method 4 prescribed in Part II of Schedule 1 to the Specified Risk Material Regulations 1997.

The second change is related to the requirements of paragraph 3(b)(ii) of Annex I to the Commission Decision. It will allow mixing of specified risk material with other material at approved rendering plants providing all the material is dealt with a specified risk material. Specified risk material kept, stored, handled and rendered at an approved rendering plant, whether processed in accordance with that method 4, or in accordance with one of the other methods prescribed in Part II of Schedule 1 to the Specified Risk Material Regulations 1997, may now be kept, stored, handled and rendered with other material at the approved rendering plant providing all the material is kept, stored, handled and rendered as specified risk material and records are kept for two years of the exact quantities of all the specified risk material and other material concerned.

A Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared and placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Copies can be obtained from the BSE Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Page Street, London.