Mandy Bailey asked members of Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services, which oversees trading standards enforcement, to go easy on sectors which were having problems complying. Local authority trading standards departments will be responsible for the day-to-day regulation of the legislation.
Ms Bailey said: “Although we have obtained a number of transition periods in specific areas, there may also be a need for some other operators to be allowed a little longer to comply with the Regulation.
Shellfish
“For example, we are hearing that some shellfish producers are experiencing difficulties in finding outlets for shell waste, which currently goes to landfill. As it may genuinely take such producers a little time to find such alternative outlets we would ask that your members take a proportionate approach in such cases.”
The Regulation came into force on May 1, but it will not be enforced in the UK until the end of May, when DEFRA is due to produce a Statutory Instrument which will introduce enforcement legislation.
Huge
However, Ms Bailey admitted that “implementation of the Regulation will be a huge task and it will take some time for the changes to be fully introduced.” She added that because the resources of the State Veterinary Service, which will be involved in regulating the start-up of the legislation, were limited, it would be unable to inspect and upgrade the approvals for all premises immediately.
“As an interim measure we are therefore proposing to issue a general approval for the various premises that are already approved to handle animal by-products, allowing them to continue until such time as their approval is revoked or replaced,” she said.
The government has also secured various transitional measures from the European Commission which will apply to various types of food waste (see letsrecycle.com story).
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