Agency appoints interim Deputy Chair

Tim Bennett was Deputy President and then President of the National Farmers’ Union of England and Wales between 1998 and 2006. He was also a governor of the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research between 2000 and 2006. He sat on the board of the Meat Hygiene Service and currently sits on the Agency’s Audit and Risk Committees. He is also a member of the Agricultural Land Tribunal for Wales, and Chairman of DairyCo, the Milk Sector Division of the new Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board, which administers statutory levies in the agricultural industry.

Tim Bennett has experience of most sectors of primary agriculture and of local retail sales, as well as a wide knowledge of the food supply chain. He was also a trustee of the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group, a charity that provides practical on-farm nature conservation advice. He and his wife own a farm near Carmarthen in South West Wales. The farm has at various times had a pedigree dairy herd, an egg-producing enterprise selling to local consumers, and a beef breeding enterprise producing Aberdeen Angus animals. The farm is organic with a small number of beef cattle.

Jeff Rooker, Chair of the Food Standards Agency, said: 'Tim Bennett is one of the longest serving Board members and I know he will draw on his wealth of experience of the FSA as he takes on this new appointment. I look forward to working closely with him in the coming months.'

The FSA is required to hold an open recruitment exercise to replace the Deputy Chair under the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments regulations. Preparations for this are taking place and the Agency expects to advertise for this appointment in September 2011. The appointment of the Deputy Chair will be made by the Secretary of State for Health.