§ Mr. LetwinTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the numbers of meat hygiene service staff available in abattoirs in the south-west. [20153]
§ Yvette Cooper[holding answer 3 December 2001]: The number of meat hygiene service (MHS) staff employed in licensed premises and therefore qualified to work in abattoirs in the south-west (defined as covering the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire), as at the end of December 2001, was as follows:
Grade Number Official Veterinary Surgeon (employed) 1 Senior Poultry/Meat Hygiene Inspector 14 Poultry/Meat Hygiene Inspector 132 Meat Technician 40 Cleansing and Disinfection Supervisor (FMD Controls) 11 Total 198 The MHS also contracts the services of 89 full-time equivalent official veterinary surgeons within the south-west. In addition, four veterinary surgeons along with a varying number of Meat and Livestock Commission staff currently fill MHS vacancies in over-thirty-months scheme plants.
139W