§ Mr. BreedTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has to increase the use of information technology within the Meat Hygiene Service. [103395]
§ Ms QuinThe Meat Hygiene Service (MHS) uses a large number of information technology (IT) systems as part of its everyday operations and has an ongoing IT strategy to develop and use additional systems as a means of improving efficiency.
To this end, the MHS is currently developing a number of initiatives, one of which relates to the use of scanning technology. For example, all Hygiene Assessment System (HAS) scores contained in the HAS Supplement of the November 1999 edition of the Meat Hygiene Enforcement Report were collated for the first time by the MHS using scanning technology. The MHS now intends to extend its use of this technology to other areas.