Specified Risk Material: Controls (Hansard, 12 January 1998)

§ Lord Donoughue

My right honourable friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food received advice from the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) in May that our existing controls on specified bovine material and heads of sheep and goats should be extended to cover the spleen of all sheep and goats and the spinal cord of sheep and goats aged over 12 months or with one permanent incisor tooth erupted through the gum. In addition, SEAC advised that all the controls should be applied to imports. We were pleased, therefore, when the European Commission adopted in July Decision 97/534/EC which provides for Community-wide controls on the use and destruction of specified risk material (SRM) and for controls on products of animal origin imported into the Community to ensure they are SRM-free. In reaching agreement on that Decision my right honourable friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food accepted that the Community-wide controls should take effect from 1 January 1998. However, it subsequently became clear that the decision would create serious practical difficulties, in particular for importers of pharmaceutical and medical products. The Commission therefore proposed a new decision to replace 97/534/EC which took account of these problems.

The Standing Veterinary Committee has failed to agree on a new decision to replace 97/534 but did 174WA agree to postpone its implementation until 1 April 1998. As my right honourable friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has made clear previously, however, he is not prepared to tolerate any slippage in the introduction of Community-wide controls on SRM. He has therefore decided, in the interests of public health, to introduce unilateral interim controls in Great Britain. He has accordingly laid before Parliament today the Specified Risk Material Regulations 1997 and the Specified Risk Material Order 1997. both of which will come into force on 1 January 1998. Together, these consolidate existing national legislation providing for destruction of certain bovine materials and heads of sheep and goats and extend them to the spleen of all sheep and goats and spinal cord of sheep and goats over 12 months of age. They will also prohibit imports of SRM except where they are for technical use. Imports of certain animal products for food and animal feed, including imports from EU member states, will need to be accompanied by official veterinary certification confirming that they do not contain and were not derived from SRM. Products manufactured before 1 January 1998 and those containing material derived from Australia and New Zealand will be exempt from this requirement.

Equivalent legislation is being introduced in Northern Ireland to come into force at the same time.