The Poultry Meat, Farmed Game Bird Meat and Rabbit Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2002

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

1.  These Regulations amend the Poultry Meat, Farmed Game Bird Meat and Rabbit Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) Regulations 1995 (“the 1995 Regulations”) insofar as those Regulations extend to Wales. The Regulations extend to the whole of Great Britain. Similar amending Regulations are being made for England and Scotland. The amendments have effect to—

(a) disapply the 1995 Regulations insofar as farmers and producers with a limited annual production of birds or rabbits make certain sales, primarily of a retail nature (regulation 2(2) to (5));

(b) prohibit a person from operating a low throughput slaughterhouse unless the person has notified the Food Standards Agency of the number and origin of the birds and rabbits to be slaughtered there (regulation 2(6));

(c) revoke regulation 15(3) (exemption from requirement for fresh meat to be accompanied by transport documentation) and make consequential amendments to regulation 15(1) and (2) (regulation 2(7) and (8));

(d) amend regulation 18(1)(a) (duty of occupier to keep records) to require the occupier of licensed premises to record the origin of meat entering the premises (regulation 2(9));

(e) amend the requirements in paragraph 5 of Part I of Schedule 5 in relation to refrigeration equipment in low throughput slaughterhouses and low throughput cutting premises (regulation 2(10));

(f) correct an error in paragraph 11 of Schedule 8 (regulation 2(11));

(g) amend the requirements in paragraph 1(a) of Schedule 14 to the 1995 Regulations in relation to transport of fresh meat of birds from low throughput slaughterhouses and low throughput cutting premises (regulation 2(12)).

2.  The amendments made by these Regulations come into force on 1st February 2002 except for those made by paragraphs (2), (3), (4) and (5) of regulation 2 which come into force on 1st December 2002.

3.  These Regulations implement in part the provisions of—

(a) Council Directive 91/495/EEC concerning public health and animal health problems affecting the production and placing on the market of rabbit meat and farmed game bird meat (OJ No. L268, 24.9.91, p.41); and

(b) Council Directive 71/118/EEC on health problems affecting the production and placing on the market of fresh poultry meat, a consolidated text of which is annexed to Council Directive 92/116/EEC (OJ No. L62, 15.3.93, p.1).

4.  Regulation 3 (made under s.2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972) makes a consequential amendment to the Products of Animal Origin (Import and Export) Regulations 1996 insofar as they extend to Wales.

5.  A regulatory appraisal pursuant to section 65 of the Government of Wales Act 1998 has been prepared in respect of these Regulations and placed in the library of the National Assembly for Wales. Copies can be obtained from the Food Standards Agency, 1st Floor, Southgate House, Wood Street, Cardiff, CF10 1EW.