Dont kill small abattoir – study
Dont kill small abattoir – study
A TASK force set up to examine Meat Hygiene Service inspection charges has advised the government to start paying some of the costs to avert the "decimation of the small and medium sized abattoir and cutting plant sector".
The meat inspection charges task force, chaired by former Meat and Livestock Commission chief executive Colin Maclean, was due to be ratify its report on Thursday and publish it soon after that.
In a draft copy seen by farmers weekly, it recommends a radical change to the charging system that will enable small abattoirs to be charged on a throughput basis. This would be cheaper for them than having to pay the hourly rate charged by MHS vets.
It also recommends that high throughput abattoirs should still be charged on the hourly rate, if that is cheaper for them.
Charging on a throughput basis, as is practised in all other EU states, would leave a shortfall in MHS funds. The government has always stuck by the principle that the MHS should recover all its costs.
But now the task force has advised it to make up the shortfall, "which could be between £14m and £19m in 2001/02 and each year thereafter". This is "perfectly legal" under the EU Charges Directive, it says.
end of last year by the Pooley Group, which was investigating red tape in the meat sector. Colin Macleans task force said change to the charging system is needed as the introduction of full-time veterinary cover in 2001/02 will add £11m on to industry.
It also backed moves to move the whole EU inspection regime from to a risk-based system which would allow more delegation of official controls to auxiliaries.
The recommendations were welcomed by the Soil Association, one of the 138 organisations currently campaigning to save small abattoirs. He said the government has a duty to implement the recommendations.