The Scottish Government

APPROVAL OF PREMISES UNDER THE ANIMAL BY-PRODUCTS (SCOTLAND) REGULATIONS 2003 AND REGULATION (EC) NO 1774/2002

1. General approvals under the above Regulations were issued by the Scottish Ministers on 30 September 2003 and, in most cases, expire on 1 January 2004. The general approvals were intended to allow sufficient time for the premises to be inspected and an individual approval granted or refused. However, it has not been possible to complete all this work within that timescale and there is a need to extend the approvals. Scottish Ministers have therefore extended the general approvals for the following operations which involve the handling or use of animal by-products or processed products -

(1) intermediate plants;

(2) storage plants;

(3) incinerators;

(4) processing (rendering) plants listed in the Schedule to the approval;

(5) oleochemical plants;

(6) petfood plants other than those producing raw petfood;

(7) technical plants (including pharmaceutical plants);

(8) the feeding of zoo or circus animals;

(9) the feeding of recognised packs of hounds;

(10) the feeding of dogs from recognised kennels;

(11) the feeding of maggots for fishing bait;

(12) collection centres;

2. In order to benefit from this approval, operators must have submitted an application for approval of their premises to their local SEERAD Animal Health Office before 29 February 2004 (or for processing plants, by 31 January 2004 ). Failure to apply by those dates will invalidate the approval in relation to the individual premises. If applications have been submitted by 29 February, the approvals will continue until -

(a) 31 March 2004 for processing (rendering) plants; and

(b) 31 July 2004 for the other premises listed above.

3. Some premises have already been inspected and issued with individual approvals. Thus the general approval does not apply to those premises which have already been issued with, or refused, an individual approval.

4. The other approvals which were issued on 30 September 2003 continue to have effect -

(13) technical plants for specific operations (e.g. walking stick production);

(14) laboratories;

(15) diagnostic*, educational or research purposes;

(16) taxidermy;

(18) the collection and transport of former foodstuffs (this will expire on 1 January 2006); and

(19) collectors of used cooking oil and operators of premises on which used cooking oil is treated or mixed (this will expire on 1 November 2004).

*We consider that the use of animal by-products for diagnostic purposes includes the production of the diagnostic equipment.

SEERAD

24 December 2003