DEFRA Consultation Letter, 13 December 2010
A copy of the consultation document is available on this site. See: Defra Consultation: Natural Mineral Water Regulations
Summary
This is a non-formal written consultation seeking views on an amendment to the Natural Mineral Water, Spring Water and Bottled Drinking Water (England) Regulations 2007. These Regulations will clarify that other languages can be used in addition to English on the labels of bottled waters. No Impact Assessment has been prepared as we believe that there are no costs associated with these Regulations. These Regulations will apply in England only. The Food Standards Agency has carried out separate consultations on equivalent draft Regulations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. These can be found at http://www.food.gov.uk/consultations
This amendment also includes changes to the text of the current Instrument to reflect the fact that responsibility for this policy area has moved from the Food Standards Agency to Defra. It removes competent authority status from the Food Standards Agency and assigns it to Defra. For the UK this involves recognition of non-EEA natural mineral water sources. For England, this involves responsibility for reviewing Local Authority decisions to revoke (or refuse to grant) recognition or to authorise certain treatments for natural mineral water, where a producer applies for such a review. Defra would also act as the contact point for LAs to provide updates on the recognition status of natural mineral water sources located in England.