In 2017 the Smarter Rules for Safer Foods (SRSF) package of regulations was introduced by the EU with the aim of strengthening the enforcement of health and safety standards for the whole agri-food chain. The SRSF package of regulations simplify legislation, making it easier to use for everyone by replacing over 70 previous European Directives and Regulations with a regulation for animal health, a regulation for plant health and one for official controls.

The plant health regulation sets out controls for protecting plants from pests and diseases and the animal health regulation sets out a framework for the principles of European animal health for 20 years. The official controls regulation is a cross cutting piece of legislation which sets out how the rules are monitored and enforced.   

The SRSF package  involved the animal health, plant health and official controls regulations . In accordance with Article 100(4)(a) and Article 167(3) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625 (“the Official Controls Regulation”), the UK would like to communicate the name and address of each of our national reference laboratories (NRLs) for plant health, corresponding to the five European Union Reference Laboratories for plant health, to the Commission and other Member States. The UK will also communicate this information to the relevant EURLs once they have been designated. Our NRLs in other fields remain as before.

Two laboratories will be NRLs for all five plant health EURLs: 

Fera Science Ltd (Fera) National Agri-Food Innovation Campus Sand Hutton York YO41 1LZ

Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) Roddinglaw Road Edinburgh EH12 9FJ

In addition, the following laboratory will be an additional NRL for nematodes:

Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) Newforge Lane  Belfast BT9 5PX