Day 105 - 16 Mar 95 - Page 20
1 Q. As far as you know? You know that they were not
2 prosecuted?
3 A. I know that neither they nor anybody else was
4 prosecuted for that because there was this upgrading period
5 when people did introduce refrigeration to detention rooms.
6
7 Q. The upgrading period in this case lasted for about seven
8 years?
9 A. Yes, you could say that. The priorities are dictated
10 by the requirements of the MAFF Regional Meat Adviser. He
11 agrees a work plan with every abattoir for the various
12 alterations that are required from time to time.
13
14 Q. The EC licence, even though it did not meet the conditions,
15 they still received the EC licence?
16 A. I would not agree that if a plant has an EC licence it
17 does not meet the conditions. If the Ministry who issue
18 the licence issue it, so far as I am concerned, it is
19 licensed.
20
21 Q. Yes, I understand that, but the point is you do not have
22 to, therefore, fulfil all the basic conditions to get the
23 licence. Presumably, if there is some promise of
24 "something will be sorted out" at a later date?
25 A. Again, a licence may well be subject to an agreed work
26 plan.
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: My knowledge of European law is as skeletal
29 as my knowledge of company law, but is the situation that
30 if there is an EC Directive, the obligation is upon the
31 Member States to bring in as soon as is reasonably
32 practical home legislation to reflect the Directive?
33 A. Yes.
34
35 Q. You have all sorts of arguments about whether this country
36 or that country is moving quickly enough?
37 A. Indeed.
38
39 Q. But it becomes law in the country of the Member State once
40 that Member State passes its own legislation to reflect the
41 Directive from the EEC?
42 A. That is the position, yes.
43
44 MR. MORRIS: Just going back on the floor plan to the separation
45 from the dirty and clean side?
46 A. Yes.
47
48 Q. Forgetting the sheep completely, the sheep line, the flat
49 doors, they are not actually marked on here, but in the
50 "hide and skin room" and the "fat room", yes?
51 A. Yes.
52
53 Q. Would that not allow contamination through those doors?
54 A. Not in my opinion. Separation of clean and dirty has
55 to have a dividing line and products have to pass from one
56 to the other.
57
58 Q. So when products are actually going through the doors they
59 are open?
60 A. Material, I should say, rather than products are --
