Advisory Body for the Delivery of Official Controls

Creating a forum for businesses, consumers and others is intended to help ensure the success of the proposed change programme and to build co-operation and partnership working. The advisory body will meet at least twice a year.

The 18 members of the advisory body comprise 12 representatives of consumers, food business operators in the red, white and game sectors, primary producers, meat retailers and supermarkets, and MHS contractors, plus the Meat Hygiene Service, Defra, the Department of Health, the Welsh Assembly Government, the Scottish Government and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland.

The Advisory Body's independent chair is Patrick Wall, Associate Professor of Public Health in the School of Public Health and Population Science, University College Dublin. He was the first Chief Executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and was chair of the European Food Safety Authority management board.

Notes of meetings will also be published once agreed by members.

The Advisory Body will provide advice and make recommendations to the FSA Board on proposed changes to the delivery of official controls in approved meat plants in the UK, covering:

• the progressive move towards full recovery of the costs of official controls from the industry, taking account of the underlying economic position of the industry
• the transformation of the MHS to reduce its total and net costs of operations in GB and improve productivity and efficiency to meet short and medium term targets
• the development of tender specifications for a control body pilot and, if agreed by the FSA Board, its implementation and evaluation
• the implementation of the official control requirements set out in Regulations 854/2004 and 882/2004 taking account of available flexibilities
• the strategy for moving towards a risk-based official control regime including SRM controls and the development of an evidence base to support negotiations

while maintaining effective consumer protection, animal health and welfare standards.

The Advisory Body's advice will also be made known to the MHS Board and FSA/MHS change programme teams.

Any queries or comments on the work of the Advisory Body should be emailed to: DeliveryOfficialControls@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk