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Powers of officers of Revenue and Customs

18.  An officer of Revenue and Customs may detain any vehicle, vessel, container or anything which he or she reasonably suspects to contain animals or products controlled by these Regulations for as long as is reasonably necessary to enable an inspector to exercise a power under these Regulations.

Illegal consignments of products

19.—(1) This regulation has effect when an inspector, on reasonable grounds, suspects that anything other than live animals is intended to be exported in contravention of these Regulations.

(2) The inspector may seize it and remove it in order to have it dealt with by a justice of the peace.

(3) If he or she seizes it he or she must inform the person appearing to him or her to be in charge of the consignment of his intention to have it dealt with by a justice of the peace, and—

(a) any person who might be liable for prosecution under these Regulations in relation to the export shall, if he attends before the justice of the peace by whom the matter falls to be dealt with, be entitled to be heard and to call witnesses; and

(b) the justice of the peace may, but need not, be a member of the court before which any person is charged with an offence under these Regulations in relation to that consignment.

(4) If it appears to a justice of the peace that there was an intention to export the consignment in contravention of these Regulations he or she must, unless he or she is satisfied that the consignment can be returned to the owner without risk of a further attempt to export it in contravention of these Regulations, order that the consignment must be destroyed or otherwise disposed of so as to prevent it from being despatched.

(5) When under the preceding paragraph a justice of the peace is satisfied that there was an intention to export a consignment in breach of these Regulations, the owner, the consignor and the consignee are jointly and severally liable for the costs reasonably incurred in its removal to storage, its storage and its destruction or disposal.

Obstruction

20.  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 his or her functions under these Regulations; or

(c) furnish to any person acting in the execution of these Regulations any information which he or she knows to be false or misleading.

Offences by bodies corporate

21.—(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,

he or she as well as the body corporate, is guilty of the offence and is 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

22.  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, etc. issued in another part of the United Kingdom

23.—(1) Where these Regulations require any authorisation, certificate or approval to be issued or granted by the Welsh Ministers in Wales, an equivalent document issued in another part of the United Kingdom by the relevant competent authority is valid.

(2) Where these Regulations require anything to be done in approved establishments or cutting plants in Wales, anything done in premises approved for those purposes in another part of the United Kingdom must be treated as if it had been processed in approved premises in Wales.

Sharing information

24.  The Welsh Ministers, the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and any local authority may exchange information for the purposes of these Regulations, and may divulge information to the enforcement authorities in another part of the British Islands.

Enforcement

25.  These Regulations shall be enforced by the Welsh Ministers or the local authority.

Revocations

26.  The Foot-And-Mouth Disease (Export Restrictions) (Wales) Regulations 2007(22) are revoked.

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations revoke and re-make with amendments the Foot-and-Mouth Disease (Export Restrictions) (Wales) Regulations 2007. They implement Commission Decision 2007/608/EC which further amends Commission Decision 2007/554/EC concerning certain protection measures against foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom.

They regulate—

(a) the importation and dispatch of live animals (regulations 4 and 5);

(b) the export of meat from bovine, ovine caprine and porcine animals and other biungulates, and the sale of meat not eligible for export (regulation 6);

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

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

(e) personal exports (regulation 15).

They create an offence of offering to export anything which it is prohibited to export under the Regulations (regulation 16).

They provide powers for enforcement, and powers for officers of Revenue and Customs (regulations 17 to 19) and create an offence of obstruction (regulation 20).

Breach of the Regulations is an offence, punishable with up to two years' imprisonment.

The Regulations are enforced by the Welsh Ministers or the local authority (regulation 25).

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