# The Specified Risk Material (Amendment) (England) Order 2001, Note: Explanatory note


(This note is not part of the Order)
This Order makes further amendments to the Specified Risk Material Order 1997 (S.I. 1997/2964, as amended by S.I. 2000/2726, S.I. 2000/3234 and S.I. 2000/3377) in so far as it extends to England. The Specified Risk Material Order 1997 (“the principal Order”) extends to Great Britain as a whole.
The amendments made by this Order to the principal Order reflects the provisions of Annex XI to Regulation (EC) No. 999/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down rules for the prevention, control and eradication of certain transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (OJ No. L147, 31.5.2001, p.1). That Annex imposed transitional measures with regard to the removal or specified risk material and was inserted into Regulation (EC) No. 999/2001 by Article 3 of Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1326/2001 (OJ No. L177, 30.6.2001, p.60).
In article 2 of the principal Order, a definition of vertebral column is added at the end of paragraph (1) and a new paragraph (5) is added(article 2(2) and (3)).
Article 3 of the principal Order (which defines “specified sheep and goat material”) is amended to exclude from the scope of the definition material derived from sheep and goats born, continuously reared and slaughtered in certain third countries(article 2(4) and (5)).
Article 4 of the principal Order (which defines “specified bovine material”) is substantially revised so that, in particular, material derived from bovine animals born, continuously reared and slaughtered in certain third countries is now outside the scope of the definition(article 2(6) to (8)).
Article 6 of the principal Order (which regulates the import of specified risk material) is amended to impose new requirements for the import of carcases of bovine animals containing vertebral column which are specified risk material(article 2(9)).
In Schedule 2 of the principal Order, a new declaration is substituted in the form of an importation certificate required by article 6(2) of the principal Order to accompany imported products. The new declaration reflects the amendments made to the requirements relating to specified risk material in the principal Order. It also now requires a declaration that the animals from which the imported products have been derived have not been slaughtered, after 31st March 2001, after stunning by means of gas injection or killed instantaneously by the same method, or slaughtered after laceration, after stunning, of central nervous tissue by means of an elongated rod-shaped instrument introduced into the cranial cavity (this last method of slaughter is also known as pithing)(article 2(10)).
A regulatory impact assessment, which includes a compliance cost assessment of the effect that this Order is likely to have on business costs, has been prepared and placed in the Library of each House of Parliament. Copies may be obtained from the BSE Division of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 1A Page Street, London SW1P 4PQ.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2001/2650/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/specified-risk-material-amendment-england-order-2001/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.