Foodlaw-Reading
Dr David Jukes, The University of Reading, UK
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FSA Consultation, 13 July 2022
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Consultation on proposed changes to national (England only) law in relation to EU Directives on animal feed, food contact materials and extraction solvents. A copy of the consultation document is available on this site (click on image). Provided under the Open Government Licence. The original document was accessed from: |
The consultation ends on 10 August 2022.
This consultation will be of most interest to
A list of interested parties is included in Annex A
Consultation subject
This consultation is to seek stakeholders’ views, comments, and feedback on the proposals to correct deficiencies in national (England only) legislation relating to animal feed, food contact materials and extraction solvents, separately, to ensure the legislation operates effectively following the UK’s exit from the European Union.
Currently, the relevant national legislation for animal feed, food contact materials and extraction solvents contain inoperabilities that need to be resolved following the UK’s exit from the EU. In particular, the legislation cross-refers to Annexes and specific articles of their associated EU Directives. These inoperabilities need to be addressed using European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (EUWA) powers. Following the referendum vote held on the 23rd June 2016, and the subsequent majority vote to leave the European Union, the EUWA was passed on the 26th of June 2018. The EUWA provides that, on exit from the EU, certain directly applicable EU legislation will be converted into UK law.
The EUWA also provides ministers with powers to make corrections to retained EU law so that it operates effectively as UK law. Necessary corrections have been made by way of a number of statutory instruments across Government departments, including the FSA.
As these powers will no longer be available after 31 December 2022, the revised national legislation must be established before the powers expire. Additionally, in order to ensure clean and operable legislation, miscellaneous references to the Directives and associated Annexes must be removed from national legislation covering animal feed, food contact material and extraction solvents respectively.
This consultation covers changes to the Statutory Instruments in England only. Similar changes are being made to Welsh and Scottish national legislation.
Purpose of the consultation
To seek stakeholders’ views, comments, and feedback in relation to the proposals to incorporate requirements in EU Directives into national law on animal feed, food contact materials and extractions solvents. We ask stakeholders to consider if any relevant requirements have been missed, or if they are content with the proposed changes.
Engagement and consultation process
A four-week public consultation is being launched across the UK to provide interested parties with an opportunity to comment on the policy proposals for the incorporation of requirements in EU Directives into national law on animal feed, food contact materials and extraction solvents.
This consultation period is relatively short in comparison to the optimal length of twelve weeks. This shorter consultation is due to the need for the FSA to conclude the process with sufficient time to allow for the use of European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (‘EUWA’) powers, which expire at the end of 2022. These powers would be used to implement the legislation in the event the consultation responses are supportive.
Any responses to this consultation will be given careful consideration and a summary of responses received will be published on the FSA website within three months of the consultation closing.
