Division 3.10.2 GUIDANCE/DEFINITION OF REQUIREMENT

With regard to feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare, national control plans should describe the systems or arrangements in place to ensure that staff performing official controls receive, or have received the training, provided for in Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 882/2004.

For all sectors, including plant health, national control plans should also describe the arrangements to ensure that all staff performing official controls have the necessary qualifications, training and competencies to perform such controls in an effective manner.

With regard to plant health, national control plans should, in particular, describe how the requirements of Article 2(1)(i) of Directive 2000/29/EC and points 1 and 2 of the Annex to Directive 98/22/EC are met.

National control plans should, for all sectors, set out the systems or arrangements in place to:

1. (a)

   identify the training needs for staff performing official controls;

2. (b)

   provide and evaluate such training;

3. (c)

   document such training for audit purposes.

The documentation of such training by the competent authorities should include recording the subject and level of training, number of days training, and the number of participants. Those records should be maintained up-to-date and be available for audits and inspections.

Arrangements for the delegation of official control tasks to control bodies, should ensure that the staff of such control bodies have the necessary training, qualification and competencies to perform those tasks in an effective manner (see also guidance at Section 3.8.2).