(1)    These Regulations may be cited as the Poultry Meat, Farmed Game Bird Meat and Rabbit Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2001 and shall extend to Wales only.

(2)    These Regulations shall come into force on 1st February 2002, except for paragraphs (2), (3), (4) and (5) of regulation 2, which shall come into force on 1st December 2002.

(1)    Insofar as they extend to Wales, the Poultry Meat, Farmed Game Bird Meat and Rabbit Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) Regulations 1995 shall be amended in accordance with the following paragraphs of this regulation.

(2)    In regulation 2(1) (interpretation) the following definitions shall be inserted in the appropriate alphabetical positions—

““farmer” means any person who is an agricultural producer and manages a holding;”; and

““holding” means an agricultural production unit situated in Great Britain managed by a farmer;”.

(3)    In paragraph (1) of regulation 3 (exemptions and saving for existing licences)—

(a)    sub-paragraph (b) shall be replaced with the following sub-paragraphs—

“(b)    subject to paragraphs (2), (3) and (4) below, in so far as a farmer who annually rears and slaughters on the aggregate of all his holdings under 10,000 birds or under 10,000 rabbits sells small quantities of fresh poultry meat, small quantities of fresh farmed game bird meat or small quantities of fresh rabbit meat derived from those birds or rabbits—

(i)    direct to the final consumer at the holding where the birds or the rabbits were reared and slaughtered;

(ii)    direct to the final consumer at the local market nearest to the holding where the birds or the rabbits were reared and slaughtered;

(iii)    direct to retailers for sale direct to the final consumer, provided the retailers make such sales in the same locality as, or in a neighbouring locality to, the holding where the birds or the rabbits were reared and slaughtered; or

(iv)    at a market (other than a local market) during the period of two weeks which immediately precede Christmas Day and Easter Sunday each year;

(bA)    in so far as a producer who annually rears and slaughters under 10,000 rabbits sells fresh rabbit meat derived from rabbits the producer has reared and slaughtered at premises under the producer's control direct to a person who buys the meat for the person's own consumption;”; and

(b)    in sub-paragraph (g), “(bA)” shall be inserted before “(c)”.

(4)    In regulation 3, paragraph (2) shall be replaced with the following—

“(2)    The exemption in paragraph (1)(b) above shall not apply to any itinerant sale or sale by mail order or, as regards a sale by a retailer, any sale by the retailer at a market.”.

(5)    In regulation 3(3) and (4), for the word “slaughterhouse” there shall be substituted the word “holding”.

(6)    In regulation 13, after paragraph (3) there shall be added the following paragraph—

“(4)    No person shall operate any licensed low throughput slaughterhouse unless he has notified the Agency, in accordance with paragraph (1) above, of the number and origin of the birds or rabbits to be slaughtered there.”.

(7)    In each of paragraphs (1) and (2) of regulation 15 (transport documentation) the phrase “Subject to paragraph (3) below” shall be revoked.

(8)    Paragraph (3) of regulation 15 shall be revoked.

(9)    In paragraph (1)(a)(i) of regulation 18 (duties of occupier), the words “and origin” shall be inserted after the word “species”.

(10)    In Part I of Schedule 5 (construction, layout and equipment of low throughput slaughterhouses and low throughput cutting premises), paragraph 5 shall be replaced with the following—

Refrigeration equipment which—

(a)    is adequate to keep the internal temperature of meat at the levels required by Schedule 12; and

(b)    has a drainage system linked to the waste water pipes which minimises the risk of contamination of meat;”.

(11)    In paragraph 11(j) of Schedule 8, for the word “producer” there shall be substituted the word “occupier”.

(12)    Paragraph 1(a) of Schedule 14 (transport) shall be replaced with the following—

“(a)    fresh meat shall be transported—

(i)    from a licensed slaughterhouse or licensed cutting premises, other than any low throughput slaughterhouse or low throughput cutting premises, by means of transport fitted with a hermetic closing system or, in the case of fresh meat imported from or intended to be transported through a third country, in a sealed means of transport, which in each case is designed and equipped in such a way that the temperatures specified in Schedule 12 are maintained throughout transportation; and

(ii)    from a slaughterhouse licensed as a low throughput slaughterhouse, or cutting premises licensed as low throughput cutting premises, by means of transport designed and equipped in such a way that the temperatures specified in Schedule 12 are maintained throughout transportation;”.

In so far as the Products of Animal Origin (Import and Export) Regulations 1996 apply to Wales, paragraph 7 of Schedule 2 thereto (regulations relevant to intra-Community trade) shall be amended by substituting the following references for the words “The Meat (Disease Control) (Wales) Regulations 2000;”:

“SI 2000/2257 (W 150);

The Poultry Meat, Farmed Game Bird Meat and Rabbit Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2001;”.

Signed on behalf of the National Assembly for Wales under section 66(1) of the Government of Wales Act 1998

Rhodri Morgan

The First Secretary of the National Assembly

14th January 2002

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)).

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.

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).

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.

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.