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Listen to this siteFriday 28 July 2006
Held at the Royal York Hotel, York
Chair
Chrissie Dunn
MHS Board Members
Valerie Howarth (Deputy Chair)
Jon Bell
Celia Bennett
Maureen Edmondson
Deryk Mead
Secretariat
David Bramley, MHS
Officials participating
Chris Lawson, MHS
Jane Downes, MHS
Kevin Goddard, MHS
Officials attending
Kathryn Davies, MHS (Items 1 – 6)
Kevin Waggott, MHS
Tim Studdert-Kennedy, Defra
Introduction and Apologies
1. The Chair welcomed Board Members and officials to the meeting and, in particular, Celia Bennett and Deryk Mead to their first MHS Board Meeting.
They had recently been appointed as independent members of the MHS Board. The Chair advised Members that apologies had been received from Alick Simmons, MHS Board Member, and observers from FSA England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
2. The Chair reminded the Board that all members had an equal voice and opportunity to speak to contribute to effective discussion.
3. The Chair also reminded Board Members of their obligation to declare any relevant interests before agenda items were discussed. No Board Members declared any interests in respect of any item on the agenda.
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Draft Minutes of the 26 May and 9 Jun 2005 Meetings (Paper (05) 51 & 52)
4. Members agreed the minutes as an accurate reflection of the May and June meetings subject to one minor amendment to the May minutes.
Action: Secretariat
Actions arising (Paper (05) 53)
5. All actions arising from the May and June meetings were complete except the redrafting of the foreword to the Corporate Business Plan.
The MHS Chief Executive advised that this would be completed by 29 July 2005.
It was noted that the 2005/06 Business Plan had been prepared for the benefit of MHS staff and that consideration will be given in future to whether a version of the plan should be prepared for external stakeholders.
Action: MHS Chief Executive
Framework Document
6. The Chair was pleased to report that the MHS Framework Document had now been formally published, following HM Treasury agreement.
The Framework Document was provided to Board members.
MHS Open House Meeting
7. The Chair updated the MHS Board on her visit to the MHS Open House session on 5 June 2005 in Chelmsford.
The Chair said she had found the meeting very useful and thanked the Chief Executive and MHS staff for the opportunity to attend the meeting.
She appreciated that the Open House sessions provided an important opportunity for staff to meet, and express their views directly to senior MHS management.
It was noted that the presence of MHS Board Members was unlikely to inhibit discussion and therefore other MHS Board members may wish to attend future Open House sessions, particularly if they were being held at venues local to Board members.
The MHS Secretariat will include details of future open house meetings in mailings so that Board members are aware of dates and venues and can let the Secretariat know should they wish to attend.
Action: Secretariat and Board Members
Induction visits
8. The Chair reported that Chris Pomfret, an FSA Board member, had attended an induction visit to the MHS Headquarters in June.
After the visit, he had written to the Chair to say that he found the visit very valuable, better understood the challenges faced by the MHS, and was impressed by the staff, particularly by the commitment of staff in the North Regional Office.
Induction visits for two other FSA Board members were being planned – one to MHS Headquarters and one to a plant. Other FSA Board members will be encouraged to attend induction visits.
This will help develop the FSA Board's understanding of the MHS.
The Chair noted that the induction process will be evaluated regularly and feedback sought from Board members attending induction visits. This will help the induction process to become even more effective.
MHS and the British Cattle Movement Service (BCMS)
9. The MHS Chief Executive said that he had hoped to be able to present an information paper in response to points raised by the Chair and Deputy Chair's report of their visit to BCMS in May.
Unfortunately, this had not been possible and paper would now be circulated to Board members intersessionally in August.
Action: MHS Chief Executive
10. The MHS Chief Executive noted that the SLA with BCMS was due to be signed on 12 August 2005 and that copies of completed MHS 50 forms were now being sent to BCMS. This had helped improve the flow of information and should help reduce the number of errors in BCMS data.
Over Thirty Month (OTM) Breaches
11.
The MHS Chief Executive said that he had reported at the May MHS Board meeting that there were no known breaches at that time in April and May.
However, the subsequent validation exercise had shown that there had been a breach in April involving an animal three days over thirty-months old.
The breach had occurred because procedures had not been followed correctly.
The validation exercise had confirmed no breaches during May. Overall, there had been a downward trend in the numbers of breaches.
In the five months since January there had been just three breaches and in the previous four months there had been seventeen.
New instructions had had a positive effect.
Although it was impossible to guarantee 100% compliance, the MHS would continue to work towards it.
The Chief Executive said that in the last five months 89 possible breaches had been identified and stopped.
Half of these had been picked up by plant staff and half by MHS staff.
All breaches since November 2004, except one, had been recommended for prosecution of the plant operator.
Everyone in the supply chain from producer to plant operator needed to take responsibility for ensuring that animals over-thirty months did not enter the food chain.
One member noted that the MHS should not be regarded as a backstop.
12. In discussion the following points were raised:
Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
13.
The Chief Executive updated the Board on the position of SLAs that the MHS holds with other Government organisations.
The Chief Executive undertook to keep Board members informed of the position on SLAs
Action: MHS Chief Executive
MHS Financial Position
14.
The Chief Executive reported that there was currently an adverse variance of
200k against budget.
Income from Specified Risk Material (SRM) controls had reduced and the reason for this was currently being investigated. The pensions impact was around
1m on the budget because of the FRS 17 reporting requirements.
15. In discussion, it was reported that the MHS staff turnover rate was 6-7%. The number of vacancies and short term cost of training new staff had been allowed for in projections.
Annual Report and Accounts
16. The Chief Executive reported that the annual report and accounts had been laid before Parliament on time and thanked all the MHS staff for their efforts.
Pay and Grading
17. The Chief Executive updated the Board on the progress of the pay and grading review which was awaiting consideration by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
Kathryn Davies, MHS Director of Corporate Services, had written to HM Treasury officials to underline the need to make urgent progress.
Ombudsman Enquiry
18.
The Chief Executive updated the Board on a complaint that the Ombudsman was handling that the MHS had not taken sufficiently seriously an allegation about illegal export of wild game.
The Chief Executive undertook to keep Board members informed of progress.
Second DNV Report
19. The second DNV report had been issued at the end of June.
The MHS Chief Executive and the FSA Chief Executive would meet shortly to discuss the way forward and would prepare a paper for the Board.
If necessary, this would be put to the Board intersessionally.
In the meantime, the Board would be kept updated of progress.
Newcastle Disease
20. The Chief Executive reported that an outbreak of Newcastle Disease (a notifiable viral disease affecting the nervous system of birds) had been detected in Surrey in pheasants received from France.
There were no production facilities within the disease area and Defra had confirmed that no activity from MHS was required at this stage.
Possible Withdrawal of Service
21. The Chief Executive updated members on a possible withdrawal of MHS inspection service.
The operator of a plant had been successfully prosecuted last year for several offences.
As a result, the operator was jailed and prohibited from involvement in the management of a food business for seven years.
However, it now appeared that this person might again be actively involved in the management of the plant.
This was currently the subject of investigation.
22. In discussion the following points were raised:
Action: MHS Chief Executive
Back to top23. The Chair invited Kevin Goddard, Head of the MHS Business Development Unit, to the table to introduce this paper. The paper set out potential themes for the September Stakeholder event, which would now be informed by the Board workshop held before this Board meeting.
24. In discussion, it was agreed that:
25. The Board agreed that:
Action: Board Secretariat
Back to top26. The Chair invited Jane Downes, MHS Director of Veterinary and Technical Services, to the table to introduce this paper. She explained that the initial prioritisation was based on science and was risk-based. Subsequently, however, priorities had been adapted to reflect other significant factors including, for example, legal requirements and political/public perceptions.
27. All members of the MHS Board congratulated the group on the development of the paper which provided a good model for cross-departmental working and future determination of MHS priorities.
28. In discussion the following points were raised:
29. The Board asked to be kept informed as the MHS prioritisation of tasks is discussed further with customers.
Action: Jane Downes
30. The Chair invited Kevin Goddard, Head of the MHS Business Development Unit, to the table to introduce this paper. Kevin explained that this was the first report against 2005/06 targets and feedback on the presentation and structure of the report would be particularly welcomed. In future, further textual analysis would be added to help explain the context and significance of progress towards targets.
31. In discussion the following points were raised:
Action: Kathryn Davies
A number of presentational improvements were identified.
Action: Kevin Goddard
No items were raised under AOB.
Date of next meeting
33. The next MHS Board Meeting will be the stakeholder meeting on 22 September 2005 in York.
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