Consultation on European Commission guidelines on preparation of multi-annual national control plans

The Food Standards Agency, together with colleagues in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the devolved Agriculture Departments, are seeking your views on the draft European Commission guidelines on preparation of national control plans for the monitoring and enforcement of feed and food law, animal health and welfare rules, and plant health law. The draft guidelines can be found below.

The UK will have to produce such a plan in order to meet a requirement in EU Regulation 882/2004 on official controls. The underpinning aim of the EU Regulation is to improve the consistency and effectiveness of monitoring and enforcement of feed and food law and animal health and animal welfare rules within Member States and across the EU and to provide safeguards to consumers. The main purpose of the plan is to ensure implementation of an effective official control system in these areas, as well as in respect of plant health law.

The Commission guidelines must be taken into account in preparing the UK's National Control Plan. Therefore, in effect, their impact equates to the impact of preparing the National Plan. In view of this, we are preparing a Public Sector Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) for the UK Plan itself rather than an RIA for the guidelines. The initial draft of this can be found below in and your views are being sought at this stage so that they may help inform the UK position on the guidelines. The RIA will be developed further in parallel with the preparation of the UK Plan.

It is expected that the Commission will adopt the guidelines via the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCoFCAH) in mid-February 2006. However, before that there will be one or two Working Group meetings to discuss the guidelines.

EU Regulation 882/2004 on official controls
This Regulation sets out the general approach that must be taken, and the principles that must be adopted, by the authorities in EU Member States that have responsibility for monitoring and enforcing feed and food law and animal health and animal welfare rules (i.e. the 'competent authorities' responsible for organising and undertaking 'official controls'). It also provides the legal basis for the European Commission to assess the effectiveness of national enforcement arrangements. Most of the provisions apply from 1 January 2006 and the others from 1 January 2007. Details of these provisions are set out in Annex A to the initial RIA below. The text of the EU Regulation can be found on the Commission website.

Article 41 of the Regulation requires Member States to prepare a single, integrated, 'multi-annual', national control plan. The purpose of this is to ensure effective implementation of official controls in respect of feed and food law, animal health and welfare rules and, as appropriate, plant heath law. The plans will also provide a basis of assessments of the performance of national control systems by the Commission's Inspection Services (the Food and Veterinary Office). Each Member State must have a national control plan in place by 1 January 2007 and, thereafter, must keep this under review and report to the Commission on its implementation on an annual basis. Article 42 of the Regulation sets out the general information that the control plan must include but there is also provision for the Commission to draw up guidelines for Member States to assist them in the preparation of their control plans.

Draft Commission guidelines
The Commission is now in the process of developing the guidelines referred to above and a copy of the current draft of these can be found below for your comments and views. Please note that this a working document only. It may not necessarily represent the views of the Commission and the document that is presented to the SCoFCAH may differ. Further drafts may be issued before SCoFCAH consideration. We will update stakeholders through the Agency's website regarding any discussions of the guidelines by the Member States and on any other developments.

The guidelines are expected to be adopted as a Commission Decision. They are non-binding but Member States will be obliged to take account of them. An initial draft has already been discussed by Member States at Commission Working Group level and the draft below takes account of the preliminary views expressed.

Your views on any aspect of the draft guidelines are welcome but we would particularly value comments on the particular issues outlined below.

• Scope of the national control plan - We believe that the scope of the national control plan should be consistent with that set out in Regulation 882/2004 and should not encompass additional areas such as official controls in respect of plant protection products or in respect of the health and welfare of domestic pets (section 5 of the document is relevant) . Do you agree?
• Level of detail - The first draft of the guidelines that the Commission produced was extremely detailed and very prescriptive. In the draft enclosed with this letter, the level of detail has been reduced and the Commission has given reassurances that it is only very general information, giving an overview of the official control arrangements in place, that is being sought. However, we believe that this is not yet reflected clearly enough in the guidelines and that there is still excessive prescription in some areas. These include, for example, a requirement to consolidate and integrate the control plans of all designated competent authorities (section 3.1.2) and the need to provide detailed information on human resources (section 3.5.2). What are your views?
• Impact on the competent authorities - As a general principle, we believe that where information is required to be included in the plan, the rationale behind the requirement and the use to which the information is to be put by the Commission must be explicit. Any requirements must focus on what is actually necessary by the Commission to assess the performance of national control systems. The approach taken must be proportionate and very careful assessment of the impact on the competent authorities of meeting any requirements must be made before they are included. In doing so, it is important to take account of the diversity of national control systems in the different Member States. Do you agree?

Draft initial Public Sector
We are also seeking views on the draft initial Public Sector RIA below. The purpose of this RIA is to assess and record the likely costs and benefits of developing the UK National Control Plan and preparing it in accordance with the Commission guidelines. As highlighted in the Executive Summary, a separate RIA for the guidelines is not being developed. This is because the guidelines must be taken into account in preparing national control plans such that their impact, in effect, equates to the impact of preparing the plan. We would welcome your comments on any aspect of the draft RIA. In particular, however, we would be grateful for any information which will help us to assess the potential financial impact for enforcement authorities. Please note that this RIA will be developed further as the negotiations on the Commission guidelines progress and during the development of the UK Plan, and we will consult further with stakeholders at appropriate stages as matters proceed.

This consultation has been prepared in accordance with the HM Government Code of Practice on Consultation, which states that a consultation must follow better regulation best practice, including carrying out an Impact Assessment (Regulatory Impact Assessment in Scotland). The assessment is included in the consultation documents.

We are interested in what you thought of this consultation and would therefore welcome your general feedback on both the consultation package and overall consultation process. If you would like to assist us to improve the quality of future consultations, please feel free to share your thoughts with us by using the consultation feedback questionnaire.

Consultation feedback questionnaire (Word)

Consultation feedback questionnaire (pdf)

In accordance with the FSA principle of openness our Information Centre at Aviation House will hold a copy of the completed consultation. The FSA will publish a summary of responses, which may include personal data, such as your full name. Disclosure of any other personal data would be made only upon request for the full consultation responses. If you do not want this information to be released, please complete and return the Publication of Personal Data Form. Return of this form does not mean that we will treat your response to the consultation as confidential, just your personal data.

Data protection form (Word)

Data protection form (pdf)

Within three months of a consultation ending we aim to publish a summary of responses received and provide a link to it from this page.

If, after three months, the summary is still not showing, please contact the person who was responsible for the original consultation. Alternatively, you can contact the FSA Consultation Co-ordinator by email: consultationcoordinator@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk