The Tuberculosis (Scotland) Order 2023: business and regulatory impact assessment

Consumer Assessment

These amendments will have limited impact on consumers.

The legislative change to pre-movement testing will come at a higher cost to keepers selling cattle to Scotland from a HIA (or from a LIA where cattle have lived a period of their life in a HIA) where the farm has had a breakdown. These farmers will have to undertake an additional test after the final SIT. Previously these animals could use the final short interval test (at the government’s expense) as a valid pre-movement test when moving an animal to holding in Scotland. However, these keepers will now be required to pay for an additional test for the animal after TB movement restrictions have been lifted as an extra precaution against disease, and the final SIT will no longer be valid as a pre-movement test. For movements where there had been no breakdown, the farmer would already pay for a pre-movement test and so this would not result in an extra cost and there will only be an additional cost in instances where there has been a breakdown.

Also affected will be those that have had a TB breakdown in Scotland, through the changes to bring in a reduction in compensation for unclean cattle and a reduction in compensation for a failure to isolate. The majority of farmers in Scotland are already compliant with TB requirements, and as such we would expect these changes to have a minimal impact. The legislative change introducing a reduction in compensation for unclean cattle reduces risk of food hygiene contamination at the slaughterhouse and incentivises keepers to maintain high animal welfare standards. This policy will only affect a small number of keepers who have a TB breakdown and do not present their animals at an acceptable level of cleanliness for slaughter, and therefore the impact on consumers is assessed as limited to a very small group of individuals.

The measure introducing a 95% reduction in compensation for a failure to properly isolate cattle identified for slaughter is necessary in order to minimise further spread of infection and to protect Scotland’s TB free status. Any number of reactors in Scotland is a threat to OTF status, as the number of infected cattle is very low, and we need to protect the national herd against infection to remain under the appropriate threshold for TB freedom. The intention of this policy is to encourage keepers to isolate to an appropriate standard to prevent further cattle from becoming infected with TB. A definition of isolation has been added to the Order to ensure that the guidance for isolation is clear and accessible to cattle keepers. A 95% reduction was deemed to be justifiable, as the cost of a consequent onward spread of disease would be costly to the taxpayer. This policy will only affect a small number of keepers who have a TB breakdown and do not comply with an instruction from a veterinary inspector to isolate an animal or animals, and therefore the impact on consumers is assessed as limited to a very small group of individuals.

Both the requirement to present cattle as clean at the slaughterhouse, and the requirement to properly isolate cattle infected or suspected of being infected with TB, are not new policies and should already be happening in practice. These legislative changes will strengthen the legal basis to allow us to take action in cases where farmers are non-compliant.

There is also a resource benefit for enforcement bodies from the consolidation of this legislation, as we are consolidating five pieces of legislation to make this more accessible and this reduces the administrative burden. This also makes the legislation more transparent for keepers affected by the legislative controls imposed by this Order.