Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Written Evidence


Annex B

ROLE OF MEAT HYGIENE SERVICE

Background and status

  1.  The Meat Hygiene Service (MHS) took over meat inspection duties from some 300 local authorities in England, Wales and Scotland on 1 April 1995, when it was newly established as an Executive Agency of the then Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development provides a similar service in Northern Ireland. Responsibility for the MHS passed to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) when the Agency was established on 1 April 2000.

Mission statement

  2.  The Mission Statement of the MHS is to be an open and independent service dedicated to the protection of public health and animal welfare by improving the quality of its services and standards in licensed meat plants in Great Britain.

Aim of the MHS

  4.  The MHS aims to safeguard public health and animal welfare through fair, consistent and effective enforcement of hygiene, inspection and welfare regulations in GB.

Functions

  5.  The main functions of the MHS, discharged on behalf of the FSA, are:

    —  The enforcement of hygiene legislation in licensed fresh meat premises.

    —  The provision of meat inspection and controls on health marking in licensed red meat, poultry meat and wild game meat premises.

    —  The enforcement of hygiene controls in meat products, minced meat and meat preparation plants that are co-located with licensed slaughterhouses.

    —  The enforcement, in licensed fresh meat premises, of controls over Specified Risk Material (SRM) and other animal by-products, and controls prohibiting the sale of meat for human consumption from cattle over 30 months of age.

  6.  The MHS also undertakes work under Service Level Agreements for Defra; the National Assembly for Wales Agriculture and Rural Affairs Department; and the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department. It also discharges the responsibilities of the Rural Payments Agency in supervising the implementation of the Over Thirty Month Scheme, and collects and dispatches samples for testing on behalf of the Veterinary Medicines Directorate.

Organisation

  7.  The MHS operates through a headquarters in York, and five Regional Offices—North (also based in York); Central (based in Wolverhampton); South & West (based in Taunton); Wales (based in Cardiff), and Scotland (based in Edinburgh).

Staff

  8.  The MHS directly employs about 1,600 staff, of which approximately 90% are operational, based at around 1500 licensed premises throughout Great Britain. The MHS also contracts for the services of approximately 600-700 full and part-time Official Veterinary Surgeons (OVSs) with around 110 contractors / veterinary practices to work in licensed premises, depending upon industry demand.

  9.  MHS operational staff comprise OVSs, Senior Poultry/Meat Hygiene Inspectors, Poultry/Meat Hygiene Inspectors and Meat Technicians. The MHS has a statutory duty to provide meat inspection services 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, if a plant operator has given the requisite period of notice of requirements.



 
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Prepared 23 October 2003