Tuberculosis (Scotland) Amendment Order 2022: business and regulatory impact assessment

Options

Option 1 - Do Nothing – (Status Quo) – No legislative changes

Under this option further regulation would not be introduced and current arrangements in relation to bovine TB controls provided by the Tuberculosis (Scotland) Order 2007 as amended would continue as they are now.

The early identification and removal of test positive cattle under the existing disease control policy has kept Scotland Officially TB free since 2009.

OTF status is recognition of the relatively low and stable incidence of TB found in Scottish herds. This does not mean that Scotland has no cases of bovine tuberculosis, but recognises that there are relatively few cases, below the threshold for that designation. Each year there are a small number of new confirmed breakdowns which can generally be attributed in the most part to imported infection from other parts of the UK where TB continues to be a significant problem for both the cattle industry and Government alike.

To do nothing could therefore potentially put Scotland's OTF status and the future of the Scottish cattle industry at risk and would result in strong criticism from the cattle industry for appearing complacent in not taking strong enough action to incentivise compliance and best practice to keep disease out of Scotland.

Option 2 – Introduce changes to TB controls - amend the Tuberculosis (Scotland) Order 2007

The second option is to make an amendment to the Order to bring in changes to diagnostic testing permissions for those taking samples, and then in 2023 consolidate the legislation and bring in legislative changes related to pre-movement testing, compensation for unclean cattle at slaughter, and isolation requirements.

This option would provide the opportunity to enact the following policy:

• Amend the provisions for the application of diagnostic tests, to include a requirement for the prior written permission of Scottish Ministers where non-statutory and private samples are taken with the intention of applying a diagnostic test for TB.

Sectors and groups affected

The main group affected by this change will be research and test development companies who will now need permission to test blood and milk samples outside of Scotland, and may be subject to reporting back on certain conditions set by Scottish Ministers. Also affected would be those who own or keep bovine animals on a premises in Scotland, as they may wish to be involved in these trials.

Occasionally cattle keepers, research companies, or other third parties, seek permission to take samples from Scottish herds to undertake TB testing in private laboratories, however permission is not required to take samples and test these in a country which is not Scotland. What happens to these samples in other countries cannot be controlled by the Scottish Government, so the policy change will require permission to be sought where samples are taken with the intention of undertaking TB testing. This policy change will mainly affect those who seek to undertake diagnostic testing/validation studies for TB tests, as it will require that they must seek permission to take any samples and there may be conditions related to this where they must report certain information to Scottish Ministers, such as sample types, the number of cattle tested, farm locations, and results.