§ Barbara FollettTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many times in each of the last five years representatives of(a) the farming sector, (b) the food manufacturing sector, (c) the food retail sector, (d) consumer organisations, (e) academia and (f) other sectors have made presentations to the Food Standards Agency Board that are not recorded in the agency's board papers; [144025]
1121W(2) how many briefing sessions not included in the agency's board papers have been held before the board of the Food Standards Agency. [144026]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonA total of 42 informal briefing sessions have been arranged for the board of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) since it established on 1 April 2000, as shown in the table.
Total number of informal briefing sessions Number 2000 9 2001 10 2002 8 2003 15 It is normal practice for informal briefing sessions to include a range of stakeholders or individuals with different views or perspectives on an issue. Details of the total number of informal briefing sessions organised for the board of the FSA since it was established on 1 April 2000 are shown in the table. Also indicated is the number of times specific sectors have participated in these informal briefing sessions. The figures for other sectors include participation by Government Departments, chairs or members of expert/advisory committees, enforcement organisations, professional associations and individuals.
2000 2001 2002 2003 Total number of informal briefing sessions 9 10 8 15 Including participation by the following groups: Farming sector — — — 1 Food manufacturing sector — — — 1 Food retail sector — 2 — 1 Consumer organisations 2 3 1 4 Academia 2 1 — 2 Other sectors 15 18 12 20 The board of the FSA has recently agreed to publish the topics of, and (subject to their agreement) the groups invited to participate in, future informal board briefing sessions. This information will be published with papers put to open board meetings, beginning with the board's next open meeting on 12 February 2004.