The Country of Origin of Certain Meats (England) Regulations 2015

Made: 4th March 2015

Laid before Parliament: 9th March 2015

Coming into force: 1st April 2015

There has been consultation, as required by Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety[^f00009], during the preparation and evaluation of the following Regulations.

Citation, commencement and application

1

• (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Country of Origin of Certain Meats (England) Regulations 2015 and come into force on 1st April 2015.

• (2) These Regulations apply to England only.

Interpretation

2

• (1) In these Regulations—

• “the Act” means the Food Safety Act 1990;

• “authorised officer” means a person authorised by an enforcement authority (within the meaning of the Act) for the purposes of these Regulations;

• “batch” has the meaning given in Article 2(2)(b);

• “batch code” means any existing mark on a label or packaging, such as a date mark or lot number, which a food business operator can demonstrate, when cross referenced with other information, allows them to identify the origins of the meat;

• “Commission Regulation” means Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1337/2013 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the indication of the country of origin or place of provenance for fresh, chilled and frozen meat of swine, sheep, goats and poultry;

• “food authority” means—a county council;a metropolitan district council;a non-metropolitan district council for an area for which there is no county council;a London borough council;the Common Council of the City of London (in their capacity as a local authority); andthe Council of the Isles of Scilly;

• “food business operator” has the meaning given in point 3 of Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council;

• “mass caterer” has the meaning given in Article 2(2)(d) of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the provision of food information to consumers[^f00010];

• “trimmings” has the meaning given in Article 2(2)(a).

• (2) Except as otherwise provided, any reference in these Regulations to an Article is a reference to an Article of the Commission Regulation.

• (3) Any reference in these Regulations to the Commission Regulation is a reference to that Regulation as amended from time to time.

Competent authority

3

Each food authority in its area or district is the competent authority for the purposes of—

• (a) the third sub-paragraph of Article 5(1) (labelling of meat where specified rearing period not attained in any single country); and

• (b) Article 5(2) (labelling of meat where “origin” indicated on the label).

Enforcement authorities

4

• (1) These Regulations are enforced by each food authority within its area and by each port health authority within its district.

• (2) In this regulation “port health authority” means—

• (a) in relation to the London port health district (within the meaning given by section 7(1) of the Public Health (Control of Diseases) Act 1984[^f00011]), the Common Council of the City of London;

• (b) in relation to any port health district constituted by order under section 2(3) of that Act, the port health authority for that district constituted by order under section 2(4) of that Act.

Records

5

• (1) A food business operator must keep a record of information under the identification and registration system required by Article 3 (traceability).

• (2) A food business operator must retain each record for a period of 12 months from the end of the calendar year to which the record relates.

Application of provisions of the Act

6

• (1) Section 10(1) and (2) of the Act (improvement notices) applies with the modification (in the case of section 10(1)) specified in Part 1 of the Schedule for the purposes of—

• (a) enabling an improvement notice to be served on a person requiring the person to comply with—

• (i) any of Articles 3 to 6 and 8 of the Commission Regulation; or

• (ii) regulation 5; and

• (b) making the failure to comply with a notice referred to in sub-paragraph (a) an offence.

• (2) Section 32 of the Act (powers of entry)[^f00012] applies, with the modifications specified in Part 2 of the Schedule, for the purposes of enabling an authorised officer—

• (a) to exercise a power of entry to ascertain whether there is, or has been, any contravention of any of Articles 3 to 6 and 8 of the Commission Regulation;

• (b) to exercise a power of entry to ascertain whether there is any evidence of any contravention of such a provision; and

• (c) when exercising a power of entry under the provisions of section 32 as applied by this paragraph, to exercise the powers in subsections (5) and (6) relating to records.

• (3) Section 37(1) and (6) of the Act (appeals) applies with the modifications specified in Part 3 of the Schedule for the purpose of enabling a decision to serve a notice referred to in paragraph (1)(a) to be appealed.

• (4) Section 39 of the Act (appeals against improvement notices) applies with the modifications specified in Part 4 of the Schedule for the purpose of dealing with appeals against a decision to serve a notice referred to in paragraph (1)(a).

• (5) The provisions of the Act specified in the first column of the table in Part 5 of the Schedule apply with the modifications specified in the second column of that table for the purposes of these Regulations.

Review

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• (1) The Secretary of State must from time to time—

• (a) carry out a review of these Regulations;

• (b) set out the conclusions of the review in a report; and

• (c) publish the report.

• (2) In carrying out the review the Secretary of State must, so far as is reasonable, have regard to how the Commission Regulation (which is implemented by means of these Regulations) is implemented in other member States.

• (3) The report must, in particular—

• (a) set out the objectives intended to be achieved by the regulatory system established by these Regulations;

• (b) assess the extent to which those objectives are achieved; and

• (c) assess whether those objectives remain appropriate and, if so, the extent to which they could be achieved with a system that imposes less regulation.

• (4) The first report under this regulation must be published before the end of the period of five years beginning with the day on which these Regulations come into force.

• (5) Reports under this regulation are afterwards to be published at intervals not exceeding five years.

SCHEDULE — Modification of provisions of the Act

PART 1 — Modification of section 10(1)

1

For section 10(1) (improvement notices) substitute—

(1) If an authorised officer of an enforcement authority has reasonable grounds for believing that a person is failing to comply with any of Articles 3 to 6 and 8 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1337/2013 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the indication of the country of origin or place of provenance for fresh, chilled and frozen meat of swine, sheep, goats and poultry, or regulation 5 of the Country of Origin of Certain Meats (England) Regulations 2015, the authorised officer may, by a notice served on that person (in this Act referred to as an “improvement notice”)— (a) state the officer’s grounds for believing that the person is failing to comply with the relevant provision; (b) specify the matters which constitute the person’s failure so to comply; (c) specify the measures which, in the officer’s opinion, the person must take in order to secure compliance; and (d) require the person to take those measures, or measures that are at least equivalent to them, within such period as may be specified in the notice.

PART 2 — Modification of section 32(1)

2

In section 32(1) (powers of entry)—

• (a) in paragraph (a), for “this Act, or of regulations or orders made under it” substitute “any of Articles 3 to 6 or 8 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1337/2013 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the indication of the country of origin or place of provenance for fresh, chilled and frozen meat of swine, sheep, goats and poultry”; and

• (b) omit paragraph (c).

PART 3 — Modification of section 37(1) and (6)

3

• (1) For section 37(1) (appeals) substitute—

(1) Any person who is aggrieved by a decision of an authorised officer of an enforcement authority to serve an improvement notice under section 10(1), as applied and modified by regulation 6(1) of, and Part 1 of the Schedule to, the Country of Origin of Certain Meats (England) Regulations 2015, may appeal to the First-tier Tribunal.

• (2) In section 37(6)—

• (a) for “(3) or (4)” substitute “(1)”; and

• (b) in paragraph (a), for “a magistrates’ court or to the sheriff” substitute “the First-tier Tribunal”.

PART 4 — Modification of section 39(1) and (3)

4

• (1) For section 39(1) (appeals against improvement notices) substitute—

(1) On an appeal against an improvement notice served under section 10(1), as applied and modified by regulation 6(1) of, and Part 1 of the Schedule to, the Country of Origin of Certain Meats (England) Regulations 2015, the First-tier Tribunal may either cancel or affirm the notice and, if it affirms it, may do so either in its original form or with such modifications as the First-tier Tribunal may in the circumstances think fit.

• (2) In section 39(3), omit “for want of prosecution”.

PART 5 — Modification of other provisions of the Act

Provision of the Act	Modifications
Section 2[^f00013] (extended meaning of “sale” etc.)	In subsection (1), for “this Act” substitute “the Country of Origin of Certain Meats (England) Regulations 2015”. In subsection (2), for “This Act” substitute “The Country of Origin of Certain Meats (England) Regulations 2015”.
Section 3 (presumptions that food intended for human consumption)	In subsection (1), for “this Act” substitute “the Country of Origin of Certain Meats (England) Regulations 2015”.
Section 20 (offences due to fault of another person)	For “any of the preceding provisions of this Part” substitute “section 10(2), as applied by regulation 6(1) of the Country of Origin of Certain Meats (England) Regulations 2015,”.
Section 21[^f00014] (defence of due diligence)	In subsection (1), for “any of the preceding provisions of this Part” substitute “section 10(2), as applied by regulation 6(1) of the Country of Origin of Certain Meats (England) Regulations 2015,”. Omit subsections (2) to (6).
Section 29 (procurement of samples)	In paragraph (b)(ii), after “under section 32 below”, insert “including under section 32 as applied and modified by regulation 6(2) of, and Part 2 of the Schedule to, the Country of Origin of Certain Meats (England) Regulations 2015”.
Section 30(8) (evidence of certificates given by a food analyst or examiner)	For “this Act” substitute “the Country of Origin of Certain Meats (England) Regulations 2015”.
Section 33 (obstruction etc. of officers)	In subsection (1), for “this Act” (in each place where it occurs) substitute “the Country of Origin of Certain Meats (England) Regulations 2015”.
Section 35(1)[^f00015] and (2) (punishment of offences)	In subsection (1), after “section 33(1) above”, insert “, as applied and modified by regulation 6(5) of, and Part 5 of the Schedule to, the Country of Origin of Certain Meats (England) Regulations 2015,”. After subsection (1), insert— 1A A person guilty of an offence under section 10(2), as applied by regulation 6(1) of the Country of Origin of Certain Meats (England) Regulations 2015, shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale. . In subsection (2)— for “any other offence under this Act” substitute “an offence under section 33(2), as applied by regulation 6(5) of, and Part 5 of the Schedule to, the Country of Origin of Certain Meats (England) Regulations 2015,”; and in paragraph (b), for “relevant amount” substitute “statutory maximum”.
Section 36 (offences by body corporate)	In subsection (1), for “this Act” substitute “section 10(2), as applied by regulation 6(1) of the Country of Origin of Certain Meats (England) Regulations 2015,”.
Section 36A[^f00016] (offences by Scottish partnerships)	For “this Act” substitute “section 10(2), as applied by regulation 6(1) of the Country of Origin of Certain Meats (England) Regulations 2015,”.
Section 44 (protection of officers acting in good faith)	For “this Act” (in each place where it occurs) substitute “the Country of Origin of Certain Meats (England) Regulations 2015”.

Signed

George Eustice — Parliamentary Under Secretary of State — Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs — 2015-03-04

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

EXPLANATORY NOTE

These Regulations make provision to enforce, in England, certain provisions of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1337/2013 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the indication of the country of origin or place of provenance for fresh, chilled and frozen meat of swine, sheep, goats and poultry (OJ No L 335, 14.12.13, p 19) (“the Commission Regulation”).

Regulation 3 sets out that each food authority in its area or district is the competent authority for the purposes of Article 5(1) and (2) of the Commission Regulation. Regulation 4 makes food authorities and port health authorities responsible for enforcement of the Regulations.

Regulation 5 requires food business operators to keep records for 12 months from the end of the calendar year to which each record relates.

Regulation 6 and the Schedule apply certain provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 (1990 c. 16) with modifications. This includes the application (with modifications) of section 10(1), enabling an improvement notice to be served requiring compliance with specified provisions of the Commission Regulation or with regulation 5. The provisions, as applied, make the failure to comply with an improvement notice an offence.

Regulation 7 contains a review provision.

The Explanatory Memorandum is published alongside the Regulations on www.legislation.gov.uk.

Footnotes

[^f00001]: 1990 c. 16; section 6(4) was amended by the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994 (c. 40), Schedule 9, paragraph 6, the Food Standards Act 1999 (c. 28) (“the 1999 Act”), Schedule 5, paragraph 10(1) and (3) and Schedule 6, and S.I. 2002/794. Section 16(1) was amended by the 1999 Act, Schedule 5, paragraph 8. Section 17(1) was amended by the 1999 Act, Schedule 5, paragraphs 8 and 12(a), and S.I. 2011/1043. Section 26(3) was partially repealed by the 1999 Act, Schedule 6. Sections 31(1) and 48(1) were amended by the 1999 Act, Schedule 5, paragraph 8.

[^f00002]: Functions formerly exercisable by “the Ministers” (being, in relation to England and Wales and acting jointly, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Secretaries of State respectively concerned with health in England and food and health in Wales and, in relation to Scotland, the Secretary of State) are now exercisable in relation to England by the Secretary of State pursuant to the Food Standards Act 1999, Schedule 5, paragraph 8.