Gold-plating killing small abattoirs

A leading business pressure group took its campaign to save small abattoirs to Brussels on April 18 2005.

The Forum of Private Business (FPB), which represents 25,000 UK small to medium sized firms, says the UK Government's interpretation of European Commission (EC) regulations governing abattoirs is too stringent for small abattoirs to comply with economically.

The FPB's food spokesman Bob Salmon, who is leading the delegation of abattoir owners to Brussels , said he wanted the EC to give greater clarity and definition to the complex wording of its abattoir regulations.

"Small abattoirs are in great peril because of the Food Standards Agency's (FSA) inflexible interpretation of the EC's regulations,' he said. "In particular the FSA is imposing tough rulings on building modifications which small businesses simply cannot afford. Figures seen by the FPB indicate that some 37 per cent of the remaining small red meat abattoirs in England are now at risk of closure and 16 per cent are at high risk. If these were to close the knock-on effect on other businesses would be devastating.  The FPB hopes that by going straight to the heart of Brussels we can get clear answers from the EC on which parts of its legislation should be mandatory for all sizes of business. There desperately needs to be a heavy dose of common sense applied to the enforcement of these regulations by the FSA. At present small abattoirs are suffering because of the quite un-necessary gold-plating of EU legislation. The UK Government is committed to ending gold-plating, it is time it put its money where its mouth is."

Mr Salmon said unless small abattoirs were helped many specialist meats could disappear from high streets and restaurants.

"Farmers have been encouraged to diversify from selling their own meat such as rare breeds, like Gloucester Old Spot, and unusual animals like wild boar, ostrich and bison which produce excellent meat,' he said. "But many farmers depend on the small abattoirs for slaughter and dressing of these animals . If those abattoirs were not there their animals would be worthless. If that source of meat disappears then all the restaurants and caterers that make profit from speciality and gourmet meals would lose their supply. Not only specialities but also Halal meat supply would be jeopardised. Nor could the farmer take the stock to a more distant facility as for  animal welfare reasons long journeys cause stress which reduces the quality of the meat. There is also a risk of spreading disease, like foot and mouth, with the widespread transportation of animals."

Mr Salmon stressed that food safety was not at risk if the regulations were interpreted more reasonably for smaller abattoirs.

"We all want safe food and there is no question of compromise on that,'  he said. "On the other hand we want diversity and choice in the meats on sale."

Foot and Mouth: New Government must pay £40m owed to contractors, says FPB

A leading business pressure group says the bitter dispute between the last Government and contractors who worked on the foot and mouth clean up - who are still owed £40m - must be resolved as a matter of priority by the next Government.

The Forum of Private Business (FPB), which has been fighting on behalf of small firms owed cash by the Department for Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), says the failure to pay many contractors is totally unacceptable.

"The FPB knows firms which have gone bust because they could not operate any longer without being paid the cash they were owed by DEFRA,' said FPB's Chief Executive Nick Goulding. "These are businesses which helped the Government at a time of national crisis and did a superb job in extremely pressured circumstances. The new Government must sort out this quite appalling situation so hard working honest firms are paid the cash that is rightfully owed to them. The culture of prevarication and inefficiency which has characterised DEFRA's handling of the foot and mouth contractors must not be allowed to continue into a new term. This is a fresh start and FPB calls on the new Government to pay up once and for all."

Mr Goulding dismissed DEFRA's plea that invoices submitted by contractors had 'irregularities' as a tired excuse. (See notes to editors)

"While we have no objection to DEFRA attempting to 'protect the public purse' by insisting on proper invoicing,' he said. "many of those still waiting to be paid insist that they did all they could under extreme circumstances to get the right paperwork in place. Most of these firms have been subjected to nearly four years of forensic accounting at the hands of DEFRA officials, which has in itself, cost millions to carry out.  We demand that the next government acts swiftly to bring to a close the whole sorry episode and commits to honouring all bona fide outstanding invoices at the earliest opportunity."



Notes 

1) According to the figures contained in the report, more than 1,200 contractors were involved in the Foot and Mouth crisis and fewer than one per cent of those contractors' claims have, or are currently being, investigated as fraudulent. At the publication date of the report, not a single contractor had been prosecuted as a result of the investigations.

The FPB notes that 18 allegations of fraud have been made against contractors: of these six claims have been dismissed and 12 are still under investigation. Ironically, 19 civil servants were found guilty of fraud, which led to four members of staff being prosecuted and 15 subjected to internal disciplinary proceedings, for fraudulent claims made during the handling of the crisis.

2) Foot and Mouth Disease was confirmed at an abattoir in Essex on 20 February 2001. By the time the disease had been eradicated in September 2001, more than six million animals had been slaughtered: more than four million for disease control purposes and more than two million for welfare reasons.

3) In November 2004, it emerged the European Commission would only be awarding DEFRA £349m, not the £600m it had hope for, from the EC's emergency pot which Brussels holds to pay for major animal disease epidemics.

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FPB BACKGROUND:

The Forum of Private Business (FPB) was formed in 1977 and is a pressure group fighting on behalf of private businesses. The FPB represents approximately 25,000 UK-based businesses employing in excess of 600,000 people, and is a powerful lobbying voice in both the UK and the European Union.

The FPB, as the only full UK member of UEAPME - the organisation that represents small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe - is the most prominent advocate of UK SMEs in Brussels and has a track record of positively affecting legislation prior to its introduction in the UK .

The FPB also provides a range of business services aimed at increasing member efficiency and profitability. Visit www.fpb.org

(21/4/05)