Office of Public Sector Information

Powers of an inspector

19.—(1) An inspector shall, on producing, if required to do so, some duly authenticated document showing his authority, have the right to enter any land or premises at all reasonable hours for the purpose of ascertaining whether there is or has been on the land or premises any contravention of these Regulations.

(2) An inspector shall have powers to carry out all checks and examinations necessary for the enforcement of these Regulations, and in particular may–

(a) detain any vehicle, vessel, container or anything which the inspector reasonably suspects to contain animals or products controlled by these Regulations and intended for export for as long as is reasonably necessary to determine whether the consignment complies with the conditions for export;

(b) search any premises;

(c) carry out inspections of any processes used for the marking and identification of animals, any premises and any installation;

(d) examine documentary or data processing material relevant to the checks carried out under these Regulations, including any import or export manifesto; and

(e) take with him a representative of the European Commission acting for the purposes of the Decision.

(3) In this regulation “premises” includes any place, installation, vehicle (including any container, trailer, semi-trailer, caravan or other thing which is designed or adapted to be towed by another vehicle), train, ship, vessel, boat, craft, hovercraft or aircraft.

Illegal consignments of products

20.—(1) An inspector who has reasonable grounds to suspect that any product other than an animal is intended to be dispatched in contravention of these Regulations may seize and remove the product.

(2) An inspector who has seized and removed a product shall forthwith–

(a) apply to the sheriff for an order under paragraph (3); and

(b) intimate that application to any person appearing to the inspector to be in charge of the product.

(3) The sheriff, if satisfied that it was intended to dispatch the product in contravention of these Regulations, shall–

(a) if satisfied that the product can be returned to the owner without a significant risk of a further attempt to dispatch it in contravention of these Regulations, order that it is so returned; or

(b) if not satisfied that the product can be returned in accordance with sub-paragraph (a), order that is to be put into storage (if practicable) or destroyed.

(4) The owner and any person in charge of a product destroyed or disposed in accordance with an order under paragraph (3) the owner shall be jointly and severally liable for the costs incurred in the return to the owner, removal to storage, storage or destruction or disposal.

(5) An inspector may apply to the sheriff for the destruction of a product stored in accordance with an order under paragraph (3), and the sheriff shall order that it is to be destroyed if satisfied that the owner cannot–

(a) be found; or

(b) pay the costs associated with storage of the product.

Obstruction

21.  No person shall–

(a) intentionally obstruct any person acting in the execution of these Regulations;

(b) without reasonable cause, fail to give to any person acting in the execution of these Regulations any assistance or information which that person may reasonably require for the purposes of their functions under these Regulations.

Furnishing false information

22.  No person shall furnish to any person acting in the execution of these Regulations any information which is known to be false or misleading.

Offences by bodies corporate

23.—(1) Where a body corporate is guilty of an offence under these Regulations, and that offence is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to have been attributable to any neglect on the part of–

(a) any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or

(b) any person who was purporting to act in any such capacity,

that officer or person as well as the body corporate, shall be guilty of the offence and be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

(2) For the purposes of this regulation, “director” in relation to a body corporate whose affairs are managed by its members, means a member of the body corporate.

Penalties

24.  A person contravening any provision of these Regulations is guilty of an offence and liable–

(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to imprisonment not exceeding three months, or to both;

(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to both.

Authorisations, certificates or approvals issued in another part of the British Islands

25.—(1) Where these Regulations require any authorisation, certificate or approval to be issued or granted by the Scottish Ministers, an equivalent document issued in another part of the British Islands by the relevant competent authority is valid.

(2) Where these Regulations require anything to be done in an approved establishment or cutting plant in Scotland, anything processed in premises approved for those purposes in another part of the British Islands shall be treated as if it had been approved in Scotland.

Sharing of information

26.  The Scottish Ministers and any local authority may exchange information for the purposes of these Regulations, and may disclose information to an enforcement authority in another part of the British Islands.

Enforcement

27.  These Regulations shall be enforced by the Scottish Ministers or the local authority.

Revocation

28.  The Import and Export Restrictions (Foot-and-Mouth Disease) (Scotland) Regulations 2007(23) are revoked.

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations revoke and re-make with amendments the Import and Export Restrictions (Foot-and-Mouth Disease) (Scotland) Regulations 2007. They implement in Scotland Commission Decision 2007/554/EC concerning certain protection measures against foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom.

They regulate–

• the importation and dispatch of live animals (regulations 4 and 5),

• the export of meat from bovine, ovine caprine and porcine animals (regulation 6),

• the export of meat products, milk and dairy products (regulations 7, 8 and 9),

• the export of semen, ova or embryos of animals of the bovine, ovine, caprine and porcine species and other biungulates (regulation 10), hides and skins (regulation 11) and various animal products (regulation 12),

• the export of equidae (regulation 15).

They create offences relating to personal export and of offering to export anything which it is prohibited to export under the Regulations (regulations 16 and 17).

They provide for the cleansing and disinfection of vehicles used to transport live animals susceptible to foot-and-mouth disease (regulation 18)

They provide powers in respect of enforcement (regulation 19) and create offences of obstruction and furnishing false information (regulations 21 and 22).

Breach of the Regulations is an offence, punishable–

(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to imprisonment not exceeding three months or to both;

(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both.

They provide for sharing of information relating to these Regulations (regulation 26).

The Regulations are enforced by the Scottish Ministers or the local authority (regulation 27).

A regulatory impact assessment has not been prepared for these Regulations.