Overview

The National Residues Control Programme (NRCP) is a statutory annual surveillance programme in England, Scotland, and Wales to sample and test food animal products, for residues of veterinary medicines and prohibited substances before they enter the food chain. This helps to protect human health and provides assurances about food safety and standards. The programme is a component of the United Kingdom Multi-Annual National Control Plan (UK MANCP) which is the framework of official control systems in place for feed and food law and animal health (including aquatic animals and bee health) and animal welfare rules. The programme currently covers the following:

1. 1. 1. 1. red meat
         2. poultry meat
         3. farmed fish
         4. eggs
         5. wild and farmed game
         6. honey
         7. milk
         8. sausage casings

Purpose

This consultation is about proposed revisions to the charges for delivering the NRCP. The proposed new charges are needed to achieve full cost recovery, and to ensure that the NRCP remains effective and viable.

Geographic scope of this consultation

This consultation covers England, Scotland and Wales and is being undertaken by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) in partnership with the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government.

Audience

Anyone may respond to the consultation. Those who may have a particular interest include:

Food business operators in England, Scotland, and Wales.

How to respond

Our preferred way of receiving responses is through the Citizen Space platform.

If you are unable to use Citizen Space, you can download the consultation documents and return your response via email to residues@vmd.gov.uk.

This consultation is also available in Welsh in line with Welsh Language Standards.

The consultation will run for 8 weeks. The consultation opens on 24/11/2025 and closes at 23:59 on 19/01/2026. Any responses received after this date will not be analysed.

Confidentiality and data protection

A summary of responses to this consultation will be published on the Government website at: www.gov.uk/defra. An annex to the consultation summary will list all organisations that responded but will not include personal names, addresses or other contact details. 

Defra, the Scottish Government, and the Welsh Government may publish the content of your response to this consultation to make it available to the public without your personal name and private contact details (for example home address, email address). 

If you click on ‘Yes’ in response to the question asking if you would like anything in your response to be kept confidential, you are asked to state clearly what information you would like to be kept confidential and explain your reasons for confidentiality. The reason for this is that information in responses to this consultation may be subject to release to the public or other parties in accordance with the access to information law (these are primarily the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIRs), the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA)). We have obligations, mainly under the EIRs, FOIA and DPA, to disclose information to particular recipients or to the public in certain circumstances. In view of this, your explanation of your reasons for requesting confidentiality for all or part of your response would help us balance these obligations for disclosure against any obligation of confidentiality. If we receive a request for the information that you have provided in your response to this consultation, we will take full account of your reasons for requesting confidentiality of your response, but we cannot guarantee that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances. 

If you click on ‘No’ in response to the question asking if you would like anything in your response to be kept confidential, we will be able to release the content of your response to the public, but we won’t make your personal name and private contact details publicly available. 

There may be occasions when Defra will share the information you provide in response to the consultation, including any personal data, with external analysts. This is for the purposes of consultation response analysis and provision of a report of the summary of responses only. 

Please find our latest privacy notice uploaded as a related document alongside our consultation documents.

If you have any comments or complaints about the consultation process, please address them to: consultation.coordinator@defra.gov.uk  

Using and sharing your information

How we use your personal data is set out in the consultation and call for evidence exercise privacy notice which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/defras-consultations-and-call-for-evidence-exercises-privacy-notice 

Other Information  

This consultation is being conducted in line with the Cabinet Office “Consultation Principles” and be found at: Microsoft Word - Consultation Principles (1).docx (publishing.service.gov.uk)