Nodiadau holiadur i awdurdodau gorfodaeth

Ymddiheurwn mai thrwy Saesneg yn unig mae'r cynnwys yma gael.

Important note

These Notes set out the Welsh Government’s interpretation of the requirements under Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 on official controls performed to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules (“Regulation 882/2004”). They do not have legal effect but are intended to offer guidance on the Regulation’s requirements. Ultimately, it would fall to the Courts to determine the full legal effect and interpretation of the Regulation.

These Notes should be read in conjunction with Regulation 882/2004 (Official Journal L191, 28.5.2004, 1-52) and, where appropriate, with other enforcement or operational instructions.

Introduction

These Notes relate primarily to the enforcement of animal health and animal welfare official controls in Wales. They are aimed mainly at those authorities responsible for monitoring and enforcement of animal health and animal welfare rules. For the purposes of these Notes, animal health includes fish health and bee health.

These Notes are not intended to cover the feed law or food law elements of Regulation 882/2004, for which the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has most of the responsibility, or to official controls on animal health and animal welfare in England, Scotland or Northern Ireland where the central authorities will be producing their own equivalent documents.

The FSA has published Question and Answer Notes for enforcement authorities (external link) in respect of the feed and food elements of Regulation 882/2004. The FSA’s Notes include coverage of those elements of feed and food law that are the responsibility of the Welsh Government, namely:

• organic foods, including imported organic food products;
• protected name food products and specified character foods;
• veterinary medicines residues;
• pesticide residues;
• animal by-products (in relation to feed);
• TSEs in relation to testing (including sampling) controls on bovine, ovine and caprine animals slaughtered for human consumption;
• the import from third countries of, and intra-Community trade in, products of animal origin; and
• beef labelling.

Regulation 882/2004 covers feed and food law, including plant-related food law in terms of residues, and animal health and animal welfare legislation. Plant health, i.e. diseases in crops and other plants, are not covered by Regulation 882/2004 other than in terms of the national control plan required under Article 41 of the Regulation. The Plant Health Directive, Council Directive 2000/29/EC on protective measures against the introduction into the Community of organisms harmful to plants or plant products and against their spread within the Community, was amended by Article 59 of Regulation 882/2004 to reflect this inclusion.

Although not actually part of the implementation package, an earlier version of these Notes were consulted on as part of the wider consultation (external link) on the Official Controls (Animals, Feed and Food) (Wales) Regulations 2006 providing for implementation in Wales of the requirements of Regulation 882/2004.

General Information

Q1. What is Regulation 882/2004 about?
Q2. Why has the Regulation been introduced?
Q3. What are the aims and objectives of the Regulation?
Q4. What are competent authorities?
Q5. Who are the competent authorities in Wales?
Q6. What are official controls?
Q7. What animal health and animal welfare rules are covered by the Regulation?
Q8. What are the main elements of the Regulation?
Q9. When do the provisions of the Regulation apply from?

General principles for enforcement arrangements in the Member States

Q10. What are these principles?

General requirements for the competent authorities

Q11. What are these requirements?
Q12. Will this mean any changes to the monitoring and enforcement arrangements in Wales?

Audit requirements for the competent authorities

Q13. What are the audit requirements for competent authorities?
Q14. What are audits for the purpose of the Regulation?
Q15. What will the audit requirements mean for competent authorities?
Q16. How are these audits to be carried out?
Q17. How will the audit requirement be met by the Welsh Government?
Q18. How will the audit requirement be met by other competent authorities?
Q19. Will audits be carried out on business premises?
Q20. What powers will auditors have?
Q21. Why is it necessary for auditors to have such powers?
Q22. What other powers have been introduced to support the audit requirement?

Requirements in relation to control bodies

Q23. What is a control body?
Q24. Are there any control bodies in Wales?
Q25. What sort of tasks can be delegated to a control body?
Q26. What are the specific conditions for delegating tasks to control bodies?
Q27. What accreditation do control bodies require?
Q28. Are there any audit requirements on control bodies?
Q29. What happens if a control body fails to carry out its delegated tasks properly?

Requirements on staff performing official controls

Q30. Are there any requirements on staff carrying out official controls?

Requirements for transparency

Q31. What are the requirements on transparency?
Q32. How will this obligation be met in Wales?
Q33. Will individual inspection reports be published?
Q34. Will the Commission publish reports on Member States official controls?

Requirements on control activities and reports

Q35. Are there any procedural requirements on competent authorities?

Requirements for sampling and analysis and for designation of official laboratories

Q36. What are the requirements in respect of sampling and analysis?
Q37. What are official laboratories?
Q38. What are the requirements for official laboratories?

Financing of official controls

Q39. What are the requirements for financing of controls?
Q40. When will charges be mandatory?
Q41. What are the rules on charging in the event of non-compliance?
Q42. What are additional controls?
Q43. When will these provisions apply?
Q44. Will the rules make a difference to the present charging regime?
Q45. Are there any other charging provisions in Regulation 882/2004?

Reference laboratories

Q46. Does Regulation 882/2004 make provision for reference laboratories?
Q47. What are the responsibilities of the Community Reference Laboratories for animal health?
Q48. What are the requirements on Community Reference Laboratories?
Q49. What are the functions of the National Reference Laboratories?
Q50. Accreditation requirements for National Reference laboratories?

National Controls Plans and Annual Reports to the Commission

Q51. What is the national control plan?
Q52. Who will produce the UK plan and who needs to contribute?
Q53. What information is included in the national control plan?
Q54. Has the UK national control plan been published?
Q55. Do Member States have to send the national control plan to the Commission?
Q56. What about reporting to the Commission on performance of the national control plan?
Q57. When do the annual reports start?
Q58. What is the level of detail needed for the annual reports?

Community controls in the Member States

Q59. How will the EC ensure that the national enforcement arrangements of MSs are effective?
Q60. Will there be any change to the current arrangements for FVO missions?
Q61. Will there be any change in the frequency of FVO missions?

Impact of Regulation 882/2004 on the livestock sector

Q62. Are there any requirements for livestock businesses in the Regulation?
Q63. Is the Regulation of any benefit to the livestock sector?

Impact on consumers

Q64. Are the new rules of any benefit to consumers?

Impact on the plant health regime

Q65. Does Regulation 882/2004 impact on the EU plant health regime?

Further information

Further information is available from:

Animal Policy Delivery
Farm Development Division
Welsh Government
Cathays Park
Cardiff
CF10 3NQ

Tel: 02920 826127