The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department
for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Gardiner of Kimble)
(Con):...The Animals (Legislative Functions) (EU Exit)
Regulations 2019 cover the area of animal health and welfare.
They provide for legislative functions to be exercisable by UK
authorities. The exercise of those functions will principally be
by way of domestic secondary legislation by the appropriate
authorities, made under the negative resolution procedure as they
will involve minor technical amendments to the EU retained law.
This instrument transfers existing functions currently conferred
on the Commission in the areas of: animal transport—Regulations 2
and 6; livestock identification—Regulations 3 and 5;
transmissible spongiform encephalopathies or TSEs—Regulation 4;
seal products—Regulation 7; animal slaughter—Regulation 9; animal
by-products or ABPs—Regulation 8 and 10; and zootechnical
conditions— Regulation 11.
These functions include matters such as: amending implementation
rules and procedures when amending detailed rules of sampling and
laboratory methods; approval of new scientific disease-related
tests; revisions to disease monitoring and surveillance; setting
down rules for breeding programmes to recognise disease
resistance in livestock; determining feed safety practices;
amendment of training and educational programmes; and the uniform
application of disease contingency plans. They also include the
power to amend the welfare requirements for transporting live
animals and methods of animal slaughter to take account of
scientific and technical progress...
(Con): My Lords, these regulations are very technical
and I congratulate my noble friend on moving them. I have a
question that relates solely to the Animals (Legislative
Functions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, in particular to paragraph
7.9 on page 4 of the Explanatory Memorandum covering Regulation
9. This is the animal slaughter regulation which will transfer,
as my noble friend has explained, the legislative functions from
Regulation (EC) No. 1007/ 2009. I notice that we are transferring
the power specifically and allowing Defra, presumably, to,
“define the maximum numbers of poultry, hares and rabbits to be
processed by low throughput slaughterhouses; and publish
guidance”...
:...My
noble friend Lady McIntosh raised animal slaughter and the closure of
slaughterhouses—an issue that I understand well. We are working
closely with the FSA and with industry, because we clearly
recognise the desirability of two things: of animals always
meeting a respectful end, and for them not to have to travel any
further than is necessary. But we must also be mindful that in
this country we require high standards of hygiene, cleanliness
and safety, which we expect across all slaughterhouses. This is
all eminently possible with all sizes of slaughterhouses, but
again this is an issue which we will return to as a nation in
other times...
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