These Regulations amend the Food Safety (Fishery Products and Live Shellfish) (Hygiene) Regulations 1998 (“the principal Regulations”) to implement Council Directive 97/61/EC (OJ No. L295, 29.10.97, p. 35) (“the Directive”) which amends Council Directive 91/492/EEC on the health conditions for the production and placing on the market of live bivalve molluscs (OJ No. L268, 24.9.91, p. 1, as amended and as adapted for the purposes of the EEA Agreement).

Regulation 2 amends the definition of “movement document” to implement those changes to the definition which can be implemented before the introduction of the standard registration document.

Regulation 3 amends regulation 19 of the principal Regulations so that the provisions relating to the transport of shellfish from dispatch centres in Chapter IX of Schedule 2 to the principal Regulations apply to all persons who place live shellfish on the market for immediate human consumption. This corrects a drafting error in the principal Regulations.

Regulation 4 implements several requirements of the Directive relating to the information which must be given in the documents which must accompany live shellfish when they are moved. It also implements Article 1.5 of the Directive which restricts the total Amnesic Shellfish Poison content in the edible parts of molluscs.

Regulation 5 and the Schedule implement the remaining requirements of the Directive. They relate to the introduction of registration documents based on a standard registration document which the Commission is required to introduce. These registration documents will replace the movement documents which at present accompany live shellfish when they are moved. Regulation 1(3) will bring regulation 5 and the Schedule into force when the European Community introduce the standard registration document.

A Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared and copies may be obtained from the Department of Health, Room 501A, Skipton House, 80 London Road, London SE1 6LW, or the Scottish Office Agriculture and Environment and Fisheries Department, Room 358, Pentland House, 47 Robb’s Loan, Edinburgh EH14 1TW. A copy has also been placed in the library of each of the Houses of Parliament.