Agency jobs not in doubt

11:27am Wednesday 9th April 2008

Comments (3)   Have your say »

A GOVERNMENT agency in York has moved to reassure the city that it is not about to start shedding jobs.

The Meat Hygiene Service (MHS), a subsidiary of the Food Standards Agency, closed its North Region Office at King's Pool, York, last week, meaning a reshuffle for 18 staff.

Farming media yesterday reported the office was set to close, but the MHS today said it had already done so, and with limited impact on staff.

Four employees chose to accept voluntary redundancy and alternative work was found for 12 others. The future remains unclear for the two remaining members of staff.

Only seven of the 18 staff were actually based at the York office, and six of them were given alternative roles. Another 11 staff were home-based managers.

The MHS's York headquarters, which is separate from the regional office, remains open. Four other regional offices - in Cardiff, Edinburgh, Wolverhampton and Taunton - are also to close.

An MHS spokeswoman said: "The main work of the regions is to manage teams of veterinarians and meat inspectors, to provide human resources and health and safety support, and to process paper-based information and forms from the 1,500 or so abattoirs and meat cutting premises in Great Britain. The current paper-based systems will be replaced with modern computer systems and the offices closed as part of a transformation programme that will save the taxpayer £16million by the financial year 2011/12."

Under the new system, each of the 1,500 meat premises in Britain will be allocated to one of 37 cluster teams. Twelve business managers across England, Scotland and Wales will provide the link between the clusters and a new delivery planning unit in York.

Steve McGrath, chief executive of the MHS, said: "These closures are necessary to improve our efficiency and the effectiveness of our role in ensuring the meat industry meets its responsibilities."