From R. A. Stevens, President, Association of Public Analysts
We are grateful to Tam Dalyell for his comments on the Association of Public Analysts
(9 September, p 53).
However, the 1998 Report on the Review of Public
Analyst Arrangements in England and Wales was carried out not by the APA, as
Dalyell says, but by an independent and eminent working group. That body was
chaired by Alan Turner and set up at the request of Jeff Rooker, then minister
for food safety, in responding to priorities set out in the White Paper The Food
Standards Agency—a Force for Change. The working group consulted all
stakeholders, including local authorities, the food industry, consumer groups
and the APA. The recommendations made by the working group, where they were
within the APA’s power and ability to respond, have largely been acted upon.
Philip James, an eminent nutritionist, was in many ways the architect of the
FSA. And it was on his recommendation that the government instigated the review
of the Public Analysts Service in 1988.
It is a matter of concern and regret to the APA that the issue of funding the
FSA which was flagged up for urgent attention by Philip James in 1997, was not
part of the 1998 team’s remit. If the public analyst is to continue to play an
effective role in food safety and food quality enforcement, the fraught problem
of funding this service must be addressed by the FSA and local authorities.
Worcestershire
