Hoteliers lawyers challenge beef ban

11 March 1998

Hoteliers lawyers challenge beef ban

THE legal team representing the hotelier prosecuted for allegedly selling
beef on the bone in defiance of the ban have mounted a legal challenge based on
“the relevancy and competency” of the charge.

They claim ministers acted improperly by failing to follow the full and
proper consultation process before the ban became law.

Sheriff James Paterson adjourned the case to 6 April, when days have been
set aside for a preliminary hearing on the basis of the defence counsels charge that the decision to invoke the ban was taken at a time when there was “no evidence” of a material risk to health.

The defence team said the Food Act of 1990 made it implicit that all new regulations must have as their goal the prevention of any material risk to health.

Jim Sutherland, of the Lodge hotel, Carfraemill, near Lauder, appeared before Selkirk Sheriff Court for serving 180 diners a so-called Prohibition Dinner on 22 December, five days after the regulations was introduced.

Farmers were among the 100-plus supporters who turn up to protest outside the court. Jack Clark, managing director of auctioneer, John Swan & Sons, was among them.