If ever one wanted a striking example of modern bureaucracy and the claptrap that goes with it, they ought to see a copy of a letter sent out to abattoir Food Business Operators (FBO’s) on the 07-04-11 by Mr Andrew Rhodes, the UK Operations Director of the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
Weighing up his announcement about changes to FSA field management structure, it is difficult to know where to start. Notwithstanding the straightforward quality control job of a meat inspector (MI) and perfunctory veterinary supervision of livestock welfare in the last hours of life, the management speak used by Mr Rhodes is an insult to the intelligence.
For example; “employed FSA field staff will be managed by employed FSA managers, ensuring accountability and responsibility for leadership remains within the FSA. This change relieves the (poor old) Official Veterinarian (OV) role of team leadership responsibilities allowing OV’s to focus more on technical leadership, compliance and animal welfare.”Also, “the Lead Veterinarian (LV) role will be developed to focus on technical support and veterinary leadership within field management.......”Plus, “the Senior Meat Hygiene Inspector (SMHI) role will be consolidated to enhance front-line management. The role will continue to focus on resourcing, but will be broadened to include line management of staff, financial responsibility and stakeholder engagement.”
No surprise, either, that never mind about cutting red tape, the FSA is going to create a new role of Supervisory MHI who will “be introduced to support management within large teams and or in plants with a poor compliance history.......” Again no surprise, “there are no planned changes to MHI’s numbers.....”
You bet there aren’t! Government departments expand by nature, that is their creed. The inevitable “project team has been established”, and as an FBO, to be informed of progress, I will have to speak to my FSA business manager. Lucky me.
This gobbledegook is impossible to parody, and reminds me of the TV series “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” of yesteryear; John Cleese and the Ministry of Silly Walks springs to mind.
If only it was that funny. We’ve got the here and now of a government agency whose contempt for the abattoir sector of the food chain is total. There even used to be something called consultation, but that look’s like a thing of the past now it seems. Mr Rhodes expounds in his letter that his review will reduce operational delivery costs by £5.5 million by 2015. Sounds good, but what Mr Rhodes forgets to mention is that by 2015, as an outcome of the proposed full cost recovery programme, it will be much more than £5.5 million saved as swathes of abattoirs are doomed to closure well before that date.
Since the Coalition Government was formed, much was made, particularly by Prime Minister David Cameron, that senior Government Ministers would closely review the negative impact of red tape on businesses, and that some serious cutting of bureaucracy to remove the ever-increasing stranglehold of officialdom from companies would ensue. I contend that the activities of the FSA should be somewhere near the top of the Government’s list for scrutiny in this respect.
If this ever came to pass, Mr Rhodes would be given a chance to justify his activities if he can satisfactorily answer the following questions;
• Has the FSA ever done a genuine risk assessment in relation to the production of fresh meat in an abattoir?
• If so, who actually carried such a risk assessment?
• He claims “success achieved......to ensure safe food for the public.” Can he produce statistics to quantify this “success”, and by what criteria these statistics are measured?
• As an employee of a Government enforcement agency, under what and whose remit is he acting in pursuing activities that seem totally at variance with the law?
• With full time daily inspections of abattoirs by vets and meat inspectors, what is auditing for?
People like Mr Rhodes just carry on regardless without the slightest worry of the damage inflicted. There is no such thing as dialogue with such individuals; when are people going to finally get that fact on board?
What kind of abattoir industry will be left after the next 5/10 years? Will there be one at all? What kind of industry does the Government envisage in years hence?
Anybody got some answers?
Toby Baker