Explanatory note
(This note is not part of the Order)
This Order replaces in relation to an area of land in England the Food Protection (Emergency Prohibitions) (England) (No. 2) Order 1986 as amended. It contains emergency prohibitions restricting various activities in order to prevent human consumption of food which has been or which may have been rendered unsuitable for that purpose in consequence of the escape of radioactive substances from a nuclear reactor situated at Chernobyl in the USSR.
The Order designates an area of land in England affected by the escape from which the movement of sheep, and in which the slaughter of sheep other than sheep identified by a red paint mark which have been examined and subsequently marked with an ear-tag, are prohibited (articles 3, 4 and 5(1) and Schedule 1). Movement into the designated area of sheep which have been removed from it or from a similarly designated area elsewhere in the United Kingdom (other than sheep which have been identified by a red paint mark, and moved, in accordance with a Ministerial consent) is prohibited (article 5(2)).
Restrictions on the slaughter of sheep from the designated area, and the supply of meat derived from such sheep, extend throughout the United Kingdom subject to exceptions (article 6(1)). Those exceptions permit the slaughter of, and the supply of meat derived from, such sheep moved unmarked to a market in accordance with a Ministerial consent or moved in accordance with such a consent which required the sheep to which it applied to be marked with a specified colour subject, in certain cases, to the sheep so identified having been subsequently examined and marked with an ear-tag by a person authorised in that behalf by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Secretary of State for Scotland or Wales or the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland (article 6(2)).
Under section 21 of the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 the penalty for contravening an emergency prohibition is—
on summary conviction, a fine of an amount not exceeding the statutory maximum (at present £2,000);
on conviction on indictment, an unlimited fine, or imprisonment for a term of not more than two years or both.
Powers of enforcement in relation to emergency prohibitions are conferred by section 4 of, and Schedule 2 to, the Act. Obstruction of enforcement officers is an offence under paragraph 10 of that Schedule.