Note on 17 July 2008 FSA board meeting on charging
Friday 25 July 2008
The Food Standards Agency Board met in Cardiff on Thursday 17 July and considered changes to the charging system operated by the Meat Hygiene Service.
The Board paper is available below. The summary of the Advisory Body's 4th meeting was included at Annex 1c. Stuart Roberts and Sue Davies were invited to address the Board.
The Board agreed to recommend to Ministers that the Agency should consult on the following proposals:
- to introduce time based charging for MHS services to replace the current charging arrangements under which most meat plant operators pay a flat rate of charge based on throughput
- to reduce the discounts currently applied to meat hygiene charges such that, all other things remaining constant, hygiene charges paid by meat plant operators would increase by 12% (inclusive of inflation) in 2009/10
- to introduce charges for controls on the removal of Specified Risk Material (SRM) from 2009/10 to recover, in the first year of charging, 5% (approximately £0.5m) of the costs of these controls
Subject to the views of Ministers, there will now be a full public consultation beginning in September. Advisory Body members will wish to contribute to the consultation and will be invited to discuss the exercise at the Advisory Body meeting on 9 December.
Contacts
David Hart
Food Standards Agency
tel: 0207 276 8343
email: david.hart@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk
Mike McEvoy
Meat Hygiene Service
tel: 01904 455 510
email: mike.mcevoy@mhs.gov.uk
