Junior Johnson, Director of Operations

Junior Johnson joined the FSA in May 2022. As the Director of Operations, he is responsible for the regulation and delivery of official controls for meat, dairy and wine in England and Wales. His role involves responding to food safety incidents and recalls, prosecuting food fraud and crime, ensuring animal welfare standards are maintained, conducting audits of domestic food businesses and international authorities to assure UK trade and working with stakeholders, business and government to ensure food if safe and is what it says it is. Junior is also the senior sponsor for the Race Ethnicity and International Staff Networks.

He previously worked at the Ministry of Justice where he was responsible for agreeing performance outcomes across prisons and ensuring transparency across the prison and probation system working closely with independent Arm’s-Length Bodies, who aimed to improve accountability, standards and outcomes for offenders through their monitoring and inspection regimes. Prior to this, he was responsible for Prison Workforce and Pay reform and implementing a new employee relations strategy. 

Junior has also worked at the Department for Work and Pensions in a variety of roles, for more than 20 years. As the Head of Service Transformation and Capability for Universal Credit Operations, he was responsible for Labour Market Transformation, Building Leadership and Digital Capability, and the development and implementation of a new performance framework. 

Junior has a strong track record in operational delivery having been a senior leader in various roles across London and the UK. He also led a team responsible for coordinating the Jobcentre Plus response to the economic downturn following a secondment at Number 10. He has also developed and implemented a series of policies and strategies and led a series of projects and change programmes.     

Junior enjoys mentoring and is involved with several charities and organisations that help to improve prospects of young people in his local community.