UK Offence Report

The Poultry Breeding Flocks and Hatcheries (Registration and Testing) Order 1989

UK Statutory Instrument 1989 No. 1963 — creates 1 criminal offence.

1offences created
0recorded in force
1revoked
Made
19 October 1989
In force from
26 October 1989
Extent
Not stated
Subject
Food, consumer protection, trading standards, product safety and age-restricted sales
Made under
Animal Health Act 1981

Explanatory note

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

This Order prohibits (with two exceptions) a person from keeping a breeding flock on any premises or from using any premises as a hatchery unless his name is entered in the Breeding Flocks Register or in the Hatcheries Register in respect of those premises, both such registers being kept by the appropriate Minister (the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food or the Secretary of State for Scotland or Wales) for the purposes of the Order. Such registration will remain in force for a period of one year and will thereafter be renewed annually by the appropriate Minister unless following an inspection carried out on the premises, he is satisfied that the registered person has failed to comply with certain specified requirements relating to the keeping of a breeding flock on the premises or to the use of the premises as a hatchery (articles 3 and 4 and Schedules 1 and 2). These prohibitions do not apply in the case of (i) a breeding flock consisting of birds which are kept solely for the production of hatching eggs or chicks for use in the manufacture of vaccines or for research or other scientific purposes or (ii) any premises which are used solely for the incubation or hatching of eggs from which chicks are sold or supplied for such use or for any such purposes (articles 3(9) and 4(9). The Order requires a registered person to ensure that samples are taken in respect of the breeding flock or hatchery and are submitted to a laboratory for testing for the presence of salmonella (other than samples taken under the supervision of an officer of the Minister which are required to be given to that officer for testing for this purpose) (articles 6 and 8 and Schedule 3). A person registered in respect of a breeding flock containing any domestic fowls is also required to ensure that blood samples are taken from the fowls for testing, by or under the supervision of an officer of the Minister, forSalmonella pullorum(article 7 and Schedule 4). The Order also requires the person in charge of a laboratory to which any sample taken in respect of a breeding flock or a hatchery has been submitted to ensure that the test is carried out in a required manner and that the result of the test is reported to the person who submitted the sample and who, if he is not the person registered in respect of the flock or hatchery in respect of which the sample was taken, is required to pass the report to the person so registered (article 9). The Order also contains provisions which– 1 prohibit any tampering with samples (article 10); 2 require registered persons to keep records of samples taken and, of the results of tests on samples and to keep records of the movement of poultry, chicks and eggs onto and off any premises on which a breeding flock is kept or which are used as a hatchery (article 11); 3 prohibit (except under licence) the vaccination of poultry with any vaccine which is likely to affect the result of any test carried out under the Order on any sample taken from the poultry (article 12); and 4 enable the appropriate Minister to issue a certificate exempting any person from the sampling and testing provisions of the Order subject to such conditions as the appropriate Minister may think fit for preventing the spread of salmonella (article 13). The provision requiring the registration of a person who keeps a breeding flock on any premises or who uses any premises as a hatchery shall come into force on 2nd April 1990. Prior to that date the duties of a registered person under the Order shall be the duties of a person who is keeping a breeding flock on any premises or who is using any premises as a hatchery and whose name will be required to be entered in the Breeding Flocks Register or in the Hatcheries Register in respect of the premises when those provisions come into force (articles 1(2) and 2(2)). Until 1st June 1990 samples (other than blood samples) taken under the Order are required to be tested at laboratories which have the necessary facilities and personnel for carrying out the tests in accordance with the Order and after that date the samples are required to be tested at laboratories authorised in writing by the Minister for this purpose (article 2(4)). For the purposes of this Order “breeding flock” means any flock of poultry consisting of not less than 25 birds which are kept (or are being reared) for the production of hatching eggs or birds for sale or supply for breeding purposes or for the production of eggs or for meat and “hatchery” means any premises, with a total incubator capacity of not less than 1,000 eggs, on which the eggs of poultry are incubated or hatched and from which chicks are sold or supplied (article 2(1)).

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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