Health and Sport Committee,
Meeting date: Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Official Report
246KB pdf
Subordinate Legislation
Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2008 (SSI 2008/166)<br />Guar Gum (Restriction on First Placing on the Market) (Scotland) Regulations 2008 (SSI 2008/176)
Item 2 is subordinate legislation. We have before us two negative instruments for consideration. The first is the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (Scotland) Amendment Regulations—I read that out just to annoy Ross Finnie. Have I passed the test, Ross?
Yes. Dr McKee suggested that whether a person uses a hard or a soft "c" depends on where they were educated.
Being a Scot, I think that I prefer a hard "c". We are brought up that way—on Irn-Bru.
The regulations are rather gruesome. They increase from 24 months to 30 months the age at which bovine vertebral column material is considered to be specific risk material. The regulations also revoke the Beef Bones (Scotland) Regulations 1999 (SSI 1999/186) and require that exporters of cattle heads—I told members that the regulations were gruesome—or unsplit carcases should obtain the agreement of the importing member state before delivery. The Subordinate Legislation Committee drew the regulations to the attention of the Health and Sport Committee on the ground that an explanation was sought from and provided by the Government, with which the Subordinate Legislation Committee is satisfied. The relevant extracts from that committee's report are reproduced in our papers.
The second set of regulations implements European Commission decision s008/352/EC, which states that products that contain at least 10 per cent Indian guar gum should be analysed for dioxin and other contaminants before being placed on the market. The Subordinate Legislation Committee drew the regulations to the attention of the Health and Sport Committee and the Parliament on the ground that an omission from the application of part 2 of the Official Feed and Food Controls (Scotland) Regulations 2007 (SSI 2007/522) had been identified. The Food Standards Agency has undertaken to resolve that, and it is not thought to affect the operation of the regulations in giving effect to the Commission decision.
No comments on either set of regulations have been received from members and no motions to annul have been lodged. Do members agree that the committee does not wish to make any recommendation in relation to the instruments—apart from the recommendation on pronunciation?
Members indicated agreement.