UK Offence Report

The Contaminants in Food (Scotland) Regulations 2006

Scottish Statutory Instrument 2006 No. 306 — creates 2 criminal offences.

2offences created
0recorded in force
2revoked
Made
7 June 2006
In force from
1 July 2006
Extent
Not stated
Subject
Food, consumer protection, trading standards, product safety and age-restricted sales
Made under
(EC) No. 178/2002, Food Safety Act 1990

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — published with the instrument by the department that made it. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

These Regulations, which extend to Scotland only, revoke and re-enact with changes the Contaminants in Food (Scotland) Regulations 2005 (S.S.I. 2005/606). They make provision for the execution and enforcement of Commission Regulation (EC) No. 466/2001 setting maximum levels for contaminants in foodstuffs (O.J. No. L 77, 16.3.2001, p.1, as corrected and amended) (“the Commission Regulation”). Recent amendments to the Commission Regulation– introduced maximum permitted levels and other controls relating to certain Fusarium toxins (Commission Regulation (EC) No. 856/2005, O.J. No. L 143, 7.6.05, p.3); and introduced new or amended controls relating to dioxins and the sum of dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs (Commission Regulation (EC) No. 199/2006, O.J. No. L 32, 4.2.06, p.34). The Regulations– provide that it is an offence (except in certain cases relating to food placed on the market before a date given in specified Community legislation)– to place on the market certain foods if they contain contaminants of any kind specified in the Commission Regulation at levels exceeding those specified (subject to a derogation applicable to certain types of lettuce and to fresh spinach); to use food containing such contaminants at such levels as ingredients in the production of certain foods; to mix foods that do not comply with the maximum levels referred to above with foods which do comply; to mix foods to which the Commission Regulation relates and which are intended for direct consumption with foods to which the Commission Regulation relates and which are intended to be sorted or otherwise treated prior to consumption; or to detoxify by chemical treatment food not complying with the limits specified in the Commission Regulation (regulation 3); specify the enforcement authorities (regulation 4); provide for the application of specified provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 for the purposes of these Regulations (regulation 5); and make a consequential amendment to the Food Safety (Sampling and Qualifications) Regulations 1990 (regulation 6), the effect being to disapply the sampling and analysis provisions of those Regulations only to the extent that those matters are regulated by the Community instruments mentioned in paragraph 3(a) to (f) below. The Commission Regulation specifies the Community methods of sampling and analysis that are required to be used for the official control of levels of the substances covered by it. Those methods are set out in– Commission Directive 2001/22/EC laying down the sampling methods and the methods of analysis for the official control of the levels of lead, cadmium, mercury and 3-MCPD in foodstuffs (O.J. No. L 77, 16.3.01, p.14), as corrected by Commission Decision 2001/873/EC (O.J. No. L 325, 8.12.01, p.34) and as amended by Commission Directive 2005/4/EC (O.J. No. L 19, 21.1.05, p.50); Commission Directive 2002/63/EC establishing Community methods of sampling for the official control of pesticide residues in and on products of plant and animal origin (O.J. No. L 187, 16.7.02, p.30); Commission Directive 2002/69/EC laying down the sampling methods and the methods of analysis for the official control of dioxins and the determination of dioxin-like PCBs in foodstuffs (O.J. No. L 209, 6.8.02, p.5), as corrected by a corrigendum published on 20th September 2002 (O.J. No. L 252, 20.9.02, p.40) and as amended by Commission Directive 2004/44/EC (O.J. No. L 113, 20.4.04, p.17); Commission Directive 2004/16/EC laying down the sampling methods and the methods of analysis for the official control of the levels of tin in canned foods (O.J. No. L 42, 13.2.04, p.16); Commission Directive 2005/10/EC laying down the sampling methods and the methods of analysis for the official control of the levels of benzo(a)pyrene in foodstuffs (O.J. No. L 34, 8.2.05, p.15); and Commission Regulation (EC) No. 401/2006 laying down the methods of sampling and analysis for the official control of the levels of mycotoxins in foodstuffs (O.J. No. L 70, 9.3.06, p.12). This Regulation repeals the sampling and analysis Directives 98/53/EC, 2002/26/EC, 2003/78/EC and 2005/38/EC and stipulates that any reference to those Directives in the Commission Regulation is to be read as a reference to Commissi on Regulation (EC) 401/2006. A full regulatory impact assessment, which includes a compliance cost assessment of the effect which these Regulations will have on business costs, has been prepared for these Regulations and placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre. Copies may be obtained from the Food Standards Agency (Scotland), 6th Floor, St Magnus House, 25 Guild Street, Aberdeen AB11 6NJ.

Offences created by this instrument

What Parliament said about it

Hansard was searched for this instrument by name and returned nothing. That is the ordinary outcome: an instrument laid under the negative procedure is usually never debated, and becomes law without a word said about it in either House.

How Parliament handled it

Parliament's Statutory Instruments service records procedure from May 2017 onwards, and this instrument predates it. That is a limit of the source, not a statement that nothing happened.

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