The Association of Independent Meat Suppliers (AIMS) has launched legal action challenging the charges that the Food Standards Agency (FSA) are levying on the meat industry.
After Roythornes Solicitors, acting for AIMS, commenced the action, AIMS veterinary director Peter Hewson said there were two reasons behind the decision.
The first is the FSA’s insistence on focusing any discussion on the meat charges ‘subsidy’ rather than looking for the causes of the excessively high charges, he said.
“And, secondly, the scale of the increase in charges to be introduced from April 2025 will see them rise by 11% for the industry as a whole and charges for medium sized abattoirs increase by 25%,” he added.
Legal counsel have advised that three issues should be included in the challenge.
- The first is that FSA has included costs in its calculation of the new hourly rates of £65.90 for an Official Veterinarian (OV) and £43.20 for a Meat Hygiene Inspector (MHI) that cannot lawfully be included.
- Secondly, it is impossible to ascertain what elements of the charges are ‘costs connected with’ official controls, rather than the chargeable costs of exercising the official controls themselves, which is non-compliant with the requirement for a high level of transparency, AIMS said.
- Thirdly, charges for enforcement activity go beyond the recovery of expenses that the Regulations provide for.
“Our letter asks that the FSA to strip out all costs from its hourly rates that cannot be lawfully charged, and we urge them to relook at their calculations,” Mr Hewson added.
FSA view
Writing on the Pig World website in October, as the FSA sought industry views on changes to charges, James Cooper, FSA deputy director of food policy said:
“HM Treasury requires that the cost of regulatory services provided by Government departments should be recovered in full. This includes charging abattoirs for the inspections our vets and meat inspectors carry out.
“Over the years, the FSA has been able to offer discounts to the meat industry because of the value this work provides for the taxpayer. Many businesses don’t pay the full rate, with small abattoirs paying the least for these essential official controls.
“Our charge rates for the meat industry though are set to rise. Inflation, which is being felt across all sectors, must inevitably be reflected in the cost of these official controls. The costs of recruiting and retaining vets have also increased as we grapple with a global shortage of vets. We have also been moving towards reducing these discounts to align with HM Treasury rules.
“The question is how much of the cost of official controls should be met by the taxpayer and how much should the industry pay.”