The Meat (Official Controls Charges) (Wales) Regulations 2008

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

1.  These Regulations apply in relation to Wales. They revoke and replace the Meat (Official Controls Charges) (Wales) (No. 2) Regulations 2007 (S.I. 2007/3461 (W.306)).

2.  These Regulations provide for the execution and enforcement in relation to Wales of Articles 26 and 27 of Regulation (EC) No. 882/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on official controls performed to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules (OJ No. L165, 30.4.2004, p.1; the revised text of Regulation (EC) No. 882/2004 is now set out in a Corrigendum, OJ No. L191, 28.5.2004, p.1, which should be read with a further Corrigendum, OJ No.L204, 4.8.2007, p.29), in so far as those provisions—

(a) require or, in the case of certain types of poultry (e.g. quail) permit, fees to be collected to cover the costs occasioned by official controls performed on meat of domestic ungulates, meat from poultry and lagomorphs, meat of farmed game and meat of wild game under Regulation (EC) No. 854/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down specific rules for the organisation of official controls on products of animal origin intended for human consumption (OJ No. L139, 30.4.2004, p.206; the revised text of Regulation (EC) No. 854/2004 is now set out in a Corrigendum, OJ No. L226, 25.6.2004, p.83, which should be read with a further Corrigendum, OJ No. L204, 4.8.2007, p.26); and

(b) require fees to be collected to cover the costs occasioned by official controls performed to verify compliance with the animal welfare rules set out in Council Directive 93/119/EC (OJ No. L340, 31.12.93, p.21) in so far as they apply in relation to animals slaughtered at slaughterhouses for human consumption.

3.  These Regulations make provision for a purpose mentioned in section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972 (1972 c. 68) and any reference to a Community instrument defined in Schedule 1 is to be construed as a reference to that instrument as amended from time to time.

4.  These Regulations —

(a) require the Agency to notify the operator of each slaughterhouse, game-handling establishment and cutting plant in which official controls have been exercised, of the official controls charge that has arisen in relation to those officials controls (the terms “slaughterhouse”, “game-handling establishment”, “cutting plant”, “official controls” and “official controls charge” are all defined in regulation 2) (regulation 3);

(b) provide that any official controls charge so notified is payable by the operator to the Agency on demand (regulation 3);

(c) allow the Agency to refuse to exercise any further official controls at given premises where, despite a Court order requiring the operator of the premises to pay the official controls charge for which the operator is liable, the operator fails to comply with the order (regulation 4);

(d) require persons—

(i) to supply the Agency on demand with such information as it may reasonably require for the purpose of calculating the official controls charge or notifying the operator of it, and

(ii) to supply the Agency on demand with such evidence as it may reasonably require to verify that information (regulation 5);

(e) provide that persons to whom such a demand has been made commit an offence if—

(i) in purported compliance with the demand, they knowingly or recklessly furnish information or evidence that is false or misleading information in a material particular, or

(ii) without reasonable excuse, they fail to comply within a reasonable time with the demand (regulation 5).

5.  Schedule 2 to these Regulations sets out how the official controls charge is to be calculated.

6.  A full regulatory impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have is available from the Food Standards Agency, 11th Floor, Southgate House, Wood Street, Cardiff, CF10 1EW.