Directive 2003/85/EC sets out minimum control measures to be applied in the event of an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease and certain preventive measures aimed at increasing the awareness and preparedness of the competent authorities and the farming community concerning that disease.

Those preventive measures include an obligation on Member States to ensure that the handling of live foot-and-mouth disease virus for research and diagnosis is carried out only in the authorised national laboratories listed in Part A of Annex XI to Directive 2003/85/EC.

The United Kingdom has officially informed the Commission that the name of the national laboratory listed in Part A of Annex XI to Directive 2003/85/EC situated in that Member State has changed.

For legal certainty, it is important to keep the list of national laboratories set out in Part A of Annex XI to Directive 2003/85/EC updated. It is therefore necessary to replace the entry for the United Kingdom in the list of national laboratories set out in Part A of that Annex.

Annex XI to Directive 2003/85/EC should therefore be amended accordingly.

The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health,