§ Mr. HarveyTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he will publish the results of the consultation on whether the same restrictions on removing the central nervous system and specified bovine materials should apply to imported beef as are placed upon domestic animals. [59447]
§ Mr. RookerThe Specified Risk Material Order 1997 prohibits the import into Great Britain of specified risk material (as defined therein), including the brains and spinal cords of bovine animals more than 6 months old and sheep and goats more than 12 months old. The Order also prohibits the importation of beef and a range of other animal products unless they are accompanied at the time of import by a certificate issued by the veterinary authorities in the country of origin confirming that they do not contain and were not derived from specified risk material.
The Order came into force on 1 January 1998, following the European Commission's decision on 16 December 1997 to defer the application of EU-wide measures to control the use of specified risk materials. The Government took the view that the interim safeguard measures in the Order, which complemented the controls on specified risk material derived from animals slaughtered in the UK, were necessary to protect public health. The provisions of the Order were notified to a large number of interested individuals, companies and organisations in writing and in a meeting prior to its entry into force but no formal consultation exercise was carried out.