Meat Hygiene Charges Update

The result of the consultation, which closed on 25 March 2009, was considered by the FSA Board at their meeting on 21 April 2009.

It has been decided, with the agreement of Ministers in all four UK countries, to proceed with the introduction of a new system of calculating charges for meat hygiene and animal welfare at slaughter official controls.

The new system will base charges on the time cost of the inspection process at meat businesses. The regulations needed to introduce this also contain a number of related measures to which Ministers have agreed.

Subject to the normal Parliamentary procedures the new arrangements will take effect from 28 September 2009 in Great Britain (and from 27 September in Northern Ireland) rather than on 29 June as was originally proposed.

Increases to charges and some other measures that the FSA proposed are not being introduced at this time. This means that, if official control time remains unchanged, businesses will not face any increase in charges when time-based charging is introduced. Charges could be lower if official control time is reduced at premises.

I attach for your information a summary of the outcome of the consultation.

The Meat Hygiene Service has written in similar terms to meat businesses and will issue an updated copy of the MHS Charges Guide to businesses close to the introduction of the new arrangements.

Yours sincerely
Steve Hardie
Animal Food Chain & Novel Foods Branch

PROPOSED CHANGES TO CHARGING ARRANGEMENTS AND CHARGING RATES FOR OFFICIAL MEAT CONTROLS

Summary of outcomes
Proposal Outcome

1. To introduce a new system of calculating charges for meat hygiene controls based on the time-costs of carrying out these controls.
Going ahead. The regulations will provide for this.

2. To charge meat hygiene control charges for all chargeable hours in Business Agreements (whether worked or not) and all additional hours required by businesses: the only exemption being where a business was to give the MHS/DARD sufficient notice of downtime such that official control resources were able to be redeployed.
Going ahead, but charges will not be made for downtime due to:
a. force majeure, for example, where a business is unable to operate due to a utility supply failure that the business could not have prevented: and
b. any other reason, for up to two hours on any two occasions in any four/five week charging period, where downtime was the result of contractual or customary practices or where the circumstances were outside of the businesses control.

3. To require businesses to declare their working hours and working practices that are relevant to charging.
The regulations will require this.

4. To charge a £400 fee for businesses to initiate a semi-independent review of the MHS's/DARD's initial assessment of the staff resources needed to carry out chargeable official controls.
The regulations will require a £250 fee to be charged.

5. Following a semi-independent review of the MHS/DARD staff allocation, to enable businesses to appeal to an independent Appointed Person against the MHS's/DARD's final assessment of the staff needed to carry out chargeable official controls at the premises.
Going ahead. The regulations provide for this.

6. To reduce by 5% (from 100% to 95%) the deduction made from meat hygiene charges in respect of the costs borne by some poultry slaughterhouses in employing Plant Inspection Assistants (PIA) to undertake official controls and to base this deduction on a standard hourly rate of £11 for PIA employment costs.
Not going ahead. The current system will be retained, pending the development of a more suitable way of implementing the FSA's policy of encouraging the use of PIAs.

7. To increase hygiene charges for meat hygiene and animal welfare at slaughter official controls by: 4%, 6% or an increase that would recover an additional £3m (in GB) over a full year, estimated at the time the consultation was launched to be 8.9%. The last of those being the Agency's stated preferred option.
Not going ahead.

8. To introduce a charge to recover 5% of the cost of official controls on the removal of Specified Risk Material (SRM), including additional BSE controls that apply to cattle slaughtered for human consumption that are required to be tested for BSE.
Deferred for consideration as part of the development of future charging proposals.

9. To enable charges to be made for the full costs of official controls that may be carried out on-farm or other place of origin.
Going ahead. The regulations provide for this. The level of charge for each farm/place of origin will be set with reference to the charging discounts that apply to slaughterhouses with similar levels of throughput.

10. To change the implementation date for future changes to UK minimum charge rates that are required due to variations of the £/Euro exchange rate from the start of each calendar year to the start of each financial year.
Going ahead, but changing from applying an exchange rate prevailing at one point in time to applying an average exchange rate based on the previous calendar year.