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 --

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