Title and commencement

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Fresh Meat (Beef Controls) (No. 2) (Amendment) Regulations 1996 and shall come into force on 4th October 1996.

Amendment

2. The Fresh Meat (Beef Controls) (No. 2) Regulations 1996(2) shall be amended as follows -

(a)in regulation 2(1), after the definition of "cattle passport" there shall be inserted -

• ""mammalian meat and bone meal" shall have the meaning given in the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Order 199;;6(3)"

(b)paragraph 6 of Part I of Schedule 1 shall be replaced by -

• "The herd shall have been in existence for four years, except where every animal in the herd to which the application relates comes from a herd registered under the Scheme, which shall in either case be verifiable from farm records.";

  (c)

  in paragraphs 7 and 8(a) of Part I of Schedule 1, before "meat" there shall be inserted "mammalian";

  (d)

  in paragraph 8(b) of Part I of Schedule 1, "which only produced feed for ruminants" shall be replaced by "in which, over the four years prior to the application, mammalian meat and bone meal has not, with the knowledge of the owner or operator, been stored or used"; and

  (e)

  paragraph 4 of Part II of Schedule 1 shall be replaced by "No animal in the herd shall be fed any feed or compound feed which contains mammalian meat and bone meal.".

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend references in the Fresh Meat (Beef Controls) (No. 2) Regulations 1996 to "meat and bone meal" to read "mammalian meat and bone meal" and alter two of the conditions of eligibility and one of the conditions of continued membership of the Beef Assurance Scheme.

The condition of eligibility that the herd must have been in existence for four years prior to registration is disapplied where the herd in question is composed entirely of animals which come from herds already registered under the Scheme.

The condition of eligibility that, over the four year period prior to application for membership of the scheme, no animal in the herd shall have been fed compound feed from a feed mill not solely producing feed for ruminants is replaced by a new requirement that any compound feed so fed must have come from a mill which has not during the four years prior to application used mammalian meat and bone meal.

The condition of continued membership that no animal in the herd shall be fed any compound feed from a mill not solely producing feed for ruminants is replaced by the requirement that no animal in the herd may be fed feed or compound feed which contains mammalian meat and bone meal.

A Compliance Cost Assessment in relation to these Regulations has been placed in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament and copies can be obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Government Buildings, Hook Rise South, Tolworth, Surbiton, Surrey, KT6 7NF.