Harvesting of Hides
Government will work with industry and the EU Commission to try to develop as soon as possible practical arrangements that may enable recovery of hides of all cattle, or at least those of cattle which were neither born nor reared in UK before 1 August 1996.
Until such arrangements are agreed, premises are advised that hides (and any other parts of the animal) must not be harvested.
It will be necessary to set up a system which will meet the requirement that all harvested parts of the body must be retained under official control until a negative result is available. Official controls in relation to this work will be chargeable to the business concerned but we will of course try to develop a system that will satisfy the EU Commission but will cost as little as possible to operate.