Citation and commencement

1. These regulations may be cited as the Slaughterhouse Hygiene (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 1987 and shall come into force on 31st December 1987.

Amendment of the Slaughterhouse Hygiene (Scotland) Regulations 1978

2. The Slaughterhouse Hygiene (Scotland) Regulations 1978((2)) are hereby amended as follows:-

(a)in regulation 2(1) (Interpretation)-

(i)in the definition of "animal" for the words "and horses" there shall be substituted the words ", horses and farmed deer" ;

(ii)after the definition of "equipment" there shall be inserted the following definition:-

""farmed deer" means any deer which-

(a)are kept by any person by way of business on land enclosed by a deer-proof barrier;

(b)are conspicuously marked in such a way as to identify them as his; and

(c)are kept by him-

(i)primarily for the purpose of the production of meat or other foodstuffs or skins or other by-products; or

(ii)primarily for breeding deer to be kept as mentioned in head (i) above;"

(b)for paragraph (b) of the proviso to regulation 36(6) (which provides for a derogation from the requirement to skin sheep heads) there shall be substituted-

"(b)that the heads of sheep and goats need be skinned only if the said heads are intended for human consumption, and where heads are not to be skinned the head, including the tongue and the brains, shall be discarded at the time of skinning the carcase."

(c)for regulation 49 there shall be substituted the following regulation:-

"49. No person shall-

(a)smoke, chew tobacco or take snuff in any lairage, slaughterhall or workroom; and

(b)urinate, defecate or spit except in a sanitary convenience."

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations further amend the Slaughterhouse Hygiene (Scotland) Regulations 1978 which regulate the construction, equipment and operation of slaughterhouses in order to secure the hygienic handling of meat therein.

In particular, the Regulations-

(a)extend the 1978 Regulations to farmed deer (regulation 2(a));

(b)make permanent a derogation from the requirement of regulation 36(6) of the 1978 Regulations to skin the heads of sheep in circumstances where the heads are not to be used for human consumption (regulation 2(b)); and

(c)amend the regulation governing personal conduct and hygiene in slaughterhouses (regulation 2(c)).