FINANCIAL EFFECTS OF THE BILL

Existing Government funding for food safety and standards work, and any associated charges, will be transferred from the Department of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the devolved administrations to the Agency..

The total cost of the Agency (including the Meat Hygiene Service - MHS - and Government funded research and development work) is estimated at around £125 million per annum. Of this total, the MHS accounts for around £53 million, although a substantial portion of its funding is met through charges on the industry.

One off start up costs of the Agency are estimated at about £30 million. The cost of new ongoing functions is estimated at over £20 million per annum. These include the Agency's role in promoting consistent and effective enforcement of food law, monitoring and surveillance work on-farm and an enhanced high profile public information role.

EFFECTS OF THE BILL ON PUBLIC SERVICE MANPOWER

It is intended that as areas of work transfer to the Agency from MAFF and DH, the posts associated with that work will transfer as well. The staff of the Agency will be civil servants. It is estimated that, once fully established, the Agency will include up to 150 more posts than the 400 that are currently in the MAFF/Department of Health Joint Food Safety and Standards Group and the equivalent functions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Not all these posts will be new: there will be some offsetting savings in parent departments. The Meat Hygiene Service, which will also transfer to the Agency, employs around 1650 staff, although it is not anticipated that this number will change as a result of the creation of the Agency.

The overall net impact of the Food Standards Bill on public sector manpower is therefore estimated at approximately 150 new posts.

SUMMARY OF THE REGULATORY IMPACT ASSESSMENT

A Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) has been prepared to accompany the Bill. The RIA assesses the general implications of the Agency's activities for businesses and consumers across the entire food chain.

While the Bill establishes the Agency and gives it the powers necessary to carry out its functions, it does not of itself directly impose or remove regulatory burdens. New burdens may arise (or be lifted) through the future decisions and practices of the Agency, but these cannot be quantified in advance in administrative or financial terms. The Agency will be required by the provisions of the Bill to act in a responsible and proportionate manner, taking full account of risks, costs and benefits, and to consult those who may be affected by its decisions wherever possible before acting.

The RIA highlights potential costs for businesses arising from regulations made under general enabling powers in the Bill to create schemes for the notification of laboratory results from tests for food-borne diseases. The precise nature of these burdens would however be the subject of a separate RIA once the necessary subordinate legislation was drawn up.

A full RIA of the costs and benefits that this Bill would have is available to the public from:

Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food,
Food Standards Agency Division 1,
Rm 404
Ergon House c/o Nobel House
17, Smith Square,
London
SW1P 3JR

Tel: 0171-238-5412

COMMENCEMENT

The Bill will be commenced by statutory instrument. Subject to progress in Parliament it is intended that the Agency should be launched in the first half of 2000.

EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Section 19 of the Human Rights Act 1998 requires the Minister in charge of a Bill in either House of Parliament to make a statement, before second reading, about the compatibility of the provisions of the Bill with the Convention rights (as defined by section 1 of that Act). The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has made the following statement:

In my view the provisions of the Food Standards Bill are compatible with the Convention rights.