The Charges for Residues Surveillance Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2026: equality impact assessment (EQIA)
The EQIA considers the potential impacts of the above Regulations, which updates fees in Scotland required to be paid in relation to surveillance of animals and animal products for residues of veterinary medicinal products and other substances.
Background
This SSI uprates the charges for the UK National Residues Control Programme (NRCP) which is a statutory annual surveillance scheme across England, Scotland, and Wales managed by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD). It is designed to help identify residues of banned substances, veterinary medicines, and contaminants in products of animal origin (POAO) destined for the food chain. The programme helps to protect human health, and provides assurances about food safety and standards, it also helps to facilitate billions of GBP worth of POAO exports into the EU and internationally. As part of the programme, each year, samples from food-producing animals are taken by various collection agencies including the Animal Plant Health Agency (APHA) on farms, and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) (in England and Wales) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) in Scotland at slaughterhouses. The charges to facilitate cost recovery were last updated via legislation in August 2024.
The programme operates on a full cost recovery basis, with actual costs recovered from each of the livestock sectors e.g. the beef, dairy and egg sector, being linked to production levels. This programme currently costs approximately £6.6m per annum. Due to an increase in the cost of the procured services (such as sampling, testing, consumables etc.) which are necessary to deliver the programme, it has become necessary to update these charges to ensure that VMD is able to continue to recover the full costs of delivering the programme.
The requirement for the control of residues in POAO is a domestic legislative requirement to ensure food safety, and stems from assimilated law. Additionally, the requirement also forms part of international obligations on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures – and are therefore intrinsically linked to trade.
The development process for this policy began in August 2025 with intergovernmental discussions between VMD, Scottish and Welsh Governments. Multiple options for rate changes were considered and then brought to a public consultation exercise with stakeholders. The policy directly affects upwards of 500 companies across the various sectors included in the NRCP and this particular instrument refers only to charging amendments.
Contact
Email: animal.health@gov.scot