Explanatory note

By this Order the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the National Assembly for Wales, acting jointly, and with the consent of the Scottish Ministers, confirm the Pig Industry Development Scheme (2000) (“the Development Scheme”).

The Development Scheme, which applies to Great Britain and is made by the Meat and Livestock Commission (“the Commission”) under section 9 of the Agriculture Act 1967 (c. 22) (“the Act”) has as its objective the provision of such facilities or services, and the giving of such financial assistance, as the Commission shall determine for the purpose of the better organisation and development of the pig industry in dealing with the risk of pig herds contracting an infectious disease and the financial consequences for the businesses of pig producers, in so far as incurred in Great Britain, of any such disease. For this purpose, the Commission are given the functions set out in Schedule 1 to the Development Scheme.

Paragraph 13 of the Development Scheme provides for the Commission to establish a fund for the operation of the Development Scheme, and Schedule 2 to the Development Scheme provides for contributions to that fund to be made from charges levied on slaughterers of pigs which are slaughtered in a slaughter house. The maximum charge per pig is specified as £1. Provision is made for the Commission to determine that such charges shall be recoverable from the person from whom the slaughterer has purchased the pig or on whose instructions the pig has been slaughtered, and, where such charges are recoverable from an auctioneer, for the charges to be recoverable by the auctoneer in turn from the person for whom he auctioned the pig.

The Development Scheme enables the Commission to require slaughterers to be registered in a register kept by the Commission, and to keep accurate records relating to pigs slaughtered.

The Development Scheme applies the offences in section 14(2) and (3) in relation to the levy scheme set out in Schedule 2, and also applies for the purposes of that levy scheme the powers of entry conferred by section 23 of the Act and the restrictions on disclosure of information in section 24 of the Act.

A Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared in respect of this Order and has been deposited in the library of both Houses of Parliament.