Explanatory note

These Regulations amend the Cattle Identification Regulations 2007 (S.I. 2007/529).

Regulation 3 makes provision for the Secretary of State to review the operation and effect of the Cattle Identification Regulations 2007 and publish a report no later than 6th April 2018 and within every five years after that. Following a review it will fall to the Secretary of State to consider whether the Regulations should remain as they are, be revoked or be amended. A further instrument would be needed to revoke the Regulations or to amend them.

Regulation 4 makes provision to add a new automated telephony system to the list of methods by which keepers may register animals with the Secretary of State.

Regulation 5 makes provision to remove the need for the occupiers of slaughterhouses to enter certain details into the passports of animals they have slaughtered.

Regulation 6 makes provision to allow keepers to report animal movements by using the new automated telephony system as a method of notification and also to report animal deaths using electronic methods as well as paper, except in the case of animals slaughtered outside a slaughterhouse that are sent to a slaughterhouse for dressing. An animal’s passport must be returned to the Secretary of State within seven days of the death unless it has been retained by an inspector.

A full impact assessment of the effect of this instrument on the costs of business and the voluntary sector is available from the Animal Identification and Movements of Livestock team, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London, SW1P 3JR and is published with the Explanatory Memorandum alongside the instrument on www.legislation.gov.uk.