Animal Products (Control of Personal Importation) (Scotland) Order 2025: equality impact assessment results

Background

This Order’s overarching aim is to protect livestock in Great Britain from disease risks arising from people importing unregulated products from animals susceptible to foot and mouth and other animal diseases, from European Economic Area (EEA) countries, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Switzerland (the EU single market area) for personal consumption or use. The diseases that may be carried or transmitted by such products include, in addition to FMD, ASF, LSD and PPR. The instrument is therefore integral to mitigating the risk of the introduction of animal diseases to Great Britain by way of animal products in personal luggage or sent by way of small consignments.

The Order impacts the public generally, including those with protected characteristics, and includes mitigations specifically intended to advance equality of opportunity for the protected characteristics of age and disability or sex, without compromising the policy objective of preventing the introduction of animal disease.

This instrument replaces the declarations of special measures which have been put in place after-the-fact of outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in EU countries in order to prevent the introduction of disease from further outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease, and other disease outbreaks within these countries, including peste des petits ruminants and lumpy skin disease. It puts on a permanent basis the restrictions on personal imports contained in the declaration of special measures and revokes the 2022 Order which it replaces. The limited exceptions to the restriction (for example for infant foods), and the conditions these products must satisfy in order to fall within the exemption, are maintained in the Order.

The instrument is important to mitigate the risk of the introduction of animal diseases to Great Britain by way of animal products in personal luggage or sent by way of small consignments. Declarations of special are after-the-fact measures which are only intended to apply while there are reasonable grounds for suspecting the existence of a disease, zoonosis, phenomenon or circumstance in a country or territory outside Great Britain. If the SSI does not proceed, the declarations of special measures are not currently considered sufficient to contain the risks posed from these products, and future outbreaks of disease within these countries.