Volume 9: Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Part 2: Scotland
9. Departmental responsibilities
Local government

9.32 In Scotland local government was for the most part arranged in a two-tier system. Regional Councils were responsible for large-scale services such as the health service, police, roads and education, while District Councils had responsibility for services of a more local nature such as housing, parks, public cleansing and environmental health. The exception to this was a small number of Island Councils, which provided all services to their communities.

9.33 As in England and Wales, local authorities employed Environmental Health Officers to carry out their responsibilities in this area. The central government Departments in the Scottish Office worked closely with local government in this field, and also with the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland (the body which represented the environmental health profession). ¹ Joint meetings between DAFS, the SVS and local authority staff involved with meat hygiene took place every 12 to 18 months, when DAFS officials visited five or six different locations in Scotland and addressed local authorities on issues of current interest. DAFS also had regular dealings with local authorities regarding the practicalities of slaughterhouse hygiene. ²

9.34 Until 1993 District and Island Councils in Scotland were responsible for the licensing and supervision of domestic abattoirs, and for the enforcement of hygiene legislation in both domestic and export plants. ³ Local authorities employed meat inspectors for this purpose and to carry out ante-mortem inspections of cattle for slaughter. Domestic plants were also inspected every six months by the SVS to monitor meat hygiene and animal welfare standards. In export plants, which were licensed by DAFS, additional supervision was required by an Official Veterinarian Surgeon (OVS) chosen from a number of OVSs designated by the Secretary of State for Scotland under the Fresh Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) Regulations. ⁴ OVSs were usually private veterinary surgeons who had undertaken an approved training course and were employed under contract by the local authority. Exceptionally they were full-time local authority employees who had also been designated by the Secretary of State for Scotland. Export abattoirs were inspected monthly by the SVS.

9.35 In 1993, to meet EU requirements, DAFS took over the licensing of domestic abattoirs, in addition to export abattoirs. Local authorities continued to have responsibility for enforcing slaughterhouse legislation until 1995, when all enforcement work was taken over by the Meat Hygiene Service. ⁵

9.36 During June 1990, as part of an SVS exercise throughout Great Britain, Mr Jim Wyllie, Veterinary Head of Section at the headquarters unit of the SVS in Edinburgh, minuted Regional Veterinary Officers in Scotland with a request that Veterinary Officers should comment on the effectiveness of the ban on Specified Bovine Offal (the SBO ban) in their reports of monthly visits to export-approved abattoirs. ⁶ An additional paragraph was duly added to the monthly report forms, where deficiencies in the level of compliance could be noted. The monthly reports were then sent to the Deputy Regional Veterinary Officers and copied to the Meat Hygiene Adviser (Scotland) (the MHAS) at the veterinary headquarters unit in Edinburgh. ⁷ Staff in DAFS also saw the reports, which were retained on Scottish Office files. If the deficiencies had occurred in an export slaughterhouse, they were pointed out to the OVS or meat inspector in the plant and to plant management, with a request that they be rectified immediately. A similar procedure applied in domestic slaughterhouses. In the case of both domestic and export plants, the local authority was advised of any deficiencies. ⁸

9.37 During 1991 the Veterinary Field Service began to conduct regular surveys of compliance with the SBO Regulations across Great Britain. Returns for these surveys were sent direct to Tolworth in England (headquarters of the SVS) and copied to the Scottish headquarters unit in Edinburgh. Mr Scudamore noted that the Scottish Office system of monitoring was left in place so that effectively there was a dual system of monitoring compliance. ⁹