Title and commencement

1. This Order may be cited as the Beef (Emergency Control) (Amendment) (No. 3) Order 1996 and shall come into force on 29th April 1996.

Amendment of the Beef (Emergency Control) Order 1996

2.-(1) The Beef (Emergency Control) Order 1996(2) shall be amended in accordance with the following paragraphs.

(2) In article 1(2), before the definition of "meat" there shall be inserted-

• ""cattle birth record document" means a document which-

  (a)

  is issued and authenticated by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food or the Secretary of State in respect of a bovine animal for which no national administrative document has been issued; and

  (b)

  records the date of birth and the ear-tag number of the bovine animal to which it relates."

(3) In article 2(1), after the words "national administrative document" there shall be inserted the words "or cattle birth record document".

(4) In article 2, for paragraph 2 there shall be substituted-

"(2) Paragraph (1) above shall not apply to meat from a bovine animal that was born, reared and slaughtered in any of the countries specified in the Schedule to this Order."

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order amends the Beef (Emergency Control) Order 1996 (S.I. 1996/961) (as amended) so as to allow reference to be made to cattle birth record documents (in addition to national administrative documents) to establish the age of bovine animals with more than one pair of incisors, for the purposes of determining whether meat from such animals may be sold for human consumption (article 2(3)).

It also replaces article 2(2) with a provision to exempt from the scope of the Order the meat of bovine animals that were born, reared and slaughtered in any of the countries in the Schedule to the Order (article 2(3)).

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 Animal Health (Disease Control) Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, G overnment Buildings, Hook Rise South, Tolworth, Surbiton, Surrey, KT6 7NF.