The Food Standards Agency (FSA) will not charge FBOs for EU minima ‘underpayments’ and will refund any such charges paid since the introduction of the time based charges in 2009; a decision which has been welcomed by the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers (AIMS).
Norman Bagley, head of policy at AIMS, commented: “Since the introduction of time-based charges we seem to have been at war with the FSA, but we are confident that all has changed and those now in charge at the Agency understand that the meat industry is not its ‘milk cow’ but a hugely important and responsible part of the rural economy that must not be crucified by disproportionate control costs.”
According to Bagley the FSA previously appeared to be intent on recovering costs from the industry that were unaffordable and, in AIMS’ view, illegal.
AIMS challenged the costs twofold. The first challenge involved the courts and FSA’s attempts to recover EU minima ‘underpayments’ without a legal basis and contrary to its charging policy to drive efficiency. AIMS won in the High Court and the FSA has since accepted that it should not make those charges.
The second challenge concerned the costs the FSA can legally charge for, as the industry believes the Agency has loaded too many overheads onto its costs. Recently a European Court judgement confirmed that the FSA has been including costs that it cannot charge for. The case, brought by the Danish industry, clarifies that the only costs that can be charged for are those exclusively of persons who are actively involved in performing official controls.
Bagley said: “With these two issues behind us we have every confidence that we can rapidly agree a new and sustainable charging system with the FSA, and we can concentrate on delivering high quality and safe meat to the consumer rather than squabbling about money."
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
