Animal Health Act 1981 (Amendment) Regulations 2005

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his explanation of this statutory instrument. I declare my interest as a livestock farmer. Several questions arise from the presentation of the instrument. As the Explanatory Memorandum very kindly mentions and as the noble Lord has drawn to our attention, full implementation of the directive requires that two other instruments will be brought into force at the same time as these regulations. Given that, what is the point of having this statutory instrument until we have a definition of ““infected premises”” on the statute book along the lines of that kindly provided by way of illustration to your Lordships’ Committee on the Merits of Statutory Instruments? Is it not possible that this statutory instrument could make the situation worse? The Government currently have the discretion to slaughter animals in an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, as defined in a way that we currently understand the term. However, once this measure is on the statute book, they will no longer have the power of discretion that they had but will be compelled to slaughter on premises where the concept of infection has yet to be defined. There is wonderful scope there for lawyers to argue that the criteria for action have not been set and perhaps to delay any action being taken. There is also an interesting element in the wording of this instrument in that, in spite of removing the Government’s discretion to slaughter, as the Minister pointed out, it tries to define circumstances in which it might be possible to regard some animals as having been isolated. It is not stated that the Government have this power, having had the power of discretion up to this point. How many times did the Government find that premises were sufficiently isolated in the previous outbreak to allow animals not to be slaughtered under the contiguous cull rulings that were brought at the time? The draft definition of ““infected premises”” outlines a considerable number of incremental steps in arriving at the conclusion that premises are infected. The Minister stated that the Government now have a detailed foot and mouth strategy in place, but those in the livestock industry, myself included, would be interested to know at which of those incremental steps the Government would have the power and even the intention to impose a general movement ban within the United Kingdom and not just an export ban, as was imposed at the last outbreak of foot and mouth disease for several days before the general ban was implemented.