Tag Archives: HM Government

Who are the Public Analysts?

Public Analysts are highly skilled scientists who carry out chemical analysis and related testing for public protection enforcement purposes. In Scotland, Public Analysts are also responsible for microbiological examination of food. Public Analysts are required to hold an MChemA (Mastership of Chemical Analysis), as prescribed by the Food Safety Regulations 2013. The Association of Public Analysts holds an annual conference, which includes recognising newly MChemA qualified candidates.

Annual APA conference – October 2017

The conference, set in the precincts of Canterbury Cathedral, was an informative and enjoyable occasion. Michael Walker, from the Government Chemist team, chaired a session of the conference and updated delegates on referee casework. Talks ranged widely from the contributions of George Wigner, a 19th Century Public Analyst to the preservation of Cleopatra’s Needle (Mr Chris Elliott, University of Southampton) to aquatic animal health (Dr Stephen Feist, Cefas, Weymouth Laboratory). Dr Jacqui McElhiney (Food Standards Scotland), discussed developing new food surveillance models in Scotland and Robbie Beattie (Edinburgh Scientific Services) described the molecular biology and microbiology of shigatoxigenic and verotoxigenic ‘Escherichia coli’. Key insights on global control measures for mycotoxins were given by Professor Ray Coker.

At the conference dinner the APA President, Jon Griffin MChemA, welcomed three new MChemA holders, Emma Downie (PASS Ltd), Micheal Kierszten (Dundee Scientific Services) and Bharathi Reddy (Lancashire Scientific Services). These scientists are looking forward to their first appointments as Public Analysts. The APA also awarded honorary membership to Professor Duncan Thorburn Burns FRSE MRIA in recognition of his lifetime research into food analysis and significant contributions to the Journal of the Association of Public Analysts.

Professor Duncan Thorburn with Jon Griffin

For more information about the work the Government Chemist does contact:

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The Government Chemist has been invited to contribute to a special edition on food allergen analysis in the highly respected journal of the AOAC INTERNATIONAL

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Making sure consumers get a good deal from businesses and that firms treat their customers fairly remains central to the CMA’s work.

Across all its work next year, the CMA proposes to take a particular interest in vulnerable consumers and ensuring that markets can be trusted. It also plans to work with partners, including groups which represent vulnerable consumers, to learn more about how people’s circumstances can affect their ability to engage in markets and get a fair deal.

The CMA also plans to better connect the CMA and the role of competition with wider society, by clearly explaining how better competition is good for ordinary people who benefit from better products and services, and good for the economy because it means that the best businesses succeed and grow.

To ensure its practices, interventions and capabilities keep pace with the tech-enabled evolution of business models and practices, the CMA plans to continue to expand its digital analysis capabilities, including by establishing a new digital, data and tech team. In the online world it intends to make sure that organisations which hold significant market power do not abuse it and that algorithms and forms of artificial intelligence do not become enablers of collusions.

There are proven links between strong competition, higher productivity and economic growth. By prioritising cases in markets which underpin and enable economic growth, and helping to create the conditions which allow innovative businesses that treat their customers well to emerge and succeed, in 2018/19 the CMA can continue to make a valuable contribution to addressing the UK’s longstanding problem with low productivity.

In 2018/19, the CMA will continue its preparations for the UK’s exit from the EU, building its capacity and capabilities to prepare for a greater role in the review of global mergers and international competition enforcement investigations post-Exit.

The CMA will also increase its presence and capabilities outside London by opening a new, expanded Edinburgh office, ensuring that it is keeping in touch with markets and consumer issues in Scotland.

David Currie, CMA Chairman, said:

With increasing and accelerating changes to the world in which we operate – in the run-up to and beyond the UK’s exit from the EU – the coming few years will be ones of opportunity and transformation, for the CMA and the competition and consumer regimes.

The investments we have made since we were formed in 2014 are delivering real results for consumers, and we will continue to invest further so that our capacity and capabilities match our ambition.

We’ve carried out a wide range of work that makes a real world difference for people every day, as well as helping fair-dealing businesses to thrive and the economy to grow. We have been increasing pace, scale and impact across all our work and our draft priorities show that this is a journey we are committed to continuing in the coming year. We look forward to receiving views on our proposed plans for next year.

The CMA will enter 2018/19 with a substantial volume of ongoing work and is currently running 15 competition enforcement cases, 7 consumer enforcement cases, 11 merger investigations and one market investigation. Most recently, it provisionally found that a pharmaceutical company abused its dominant position by overcharging the NHS by millions for an essential thyroid drug. Having concluded its digital comparison tools (DCTs) market study in September, it also recently published the final report in its study into care homes for the elderly, issuing a series of recommendations to make the market work better for residents and their families.

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Housing and Planning Minister Alok Sharma today (4 December 2017) announced that the Planning Delivery Fund is now open for bids and will support ambitious local authorities and third sector organisations in areas of high housing need to plan for new homes and infrastructure.

Initially opening up £11 million of the fund, councils will be able to apply to help gain the skills or capacity they need to deliver high quality housing growth at scale, pace and implement wider planning reforms. The fund is aimed at encouraging more innovation in the design quality of new housing developments, as well as provide design advice and support to local authorities.

As part of the government’s plans to raise housing supply to 300,000 per year on average by the mid-2020s, a package of measure has been announced to boost local authority planning capacity, support councils to take a proactive role in planning and encourage ambition and leadership in the delivery of new communities.

Others measures announced include:

• a further £3 million funding to support the delivery of the 14 garden villages that are part of the government’s existing programme
• publishing a consultation on plans to allow the creation of locally led New Town Development Corporations, and help speed up the delivery of new garden towns.

Housing and Planning Minister Alok Sharma said:

Locally-led developments have enormous potential to deliver the scale and quality of housing growth that we need. By supporting our local authorities, we will be able to unlock more homes where people want to live.

These measures including the £28 million of government support which will help develop new communities that will not only help deliver high-quality well-designed homes, but will also bring new jobs and facilities and a boost to local economies.

Across England, the government is currently supporting 24 locally-led garden cities, towns and villages, which have the potential to deliver around 220,000 homes.

Backed by £16 million funding, a further £3 million has been allocated to 14 garden villages in the programme to fund dedicated staff and studies and assessments that are vital to the delivery of garden villages that are key to successful delivery.

The government’s housing white paper in February 2017 committed to the creation of New Town Development Corporations, which would be overseen by the local authority or authorities covering the area proposed for a new garden community, rather than by Whitehall. Government is now seeking views on this proposal.

The first part of Planning Delivery Fund allocation of £11 million will be open to bids for the financial years 2017-18 to 2018-19.

A garden town is a development of more than 10,000 homes. Garden villages are smaller settlements of between 1,500 and 10,000 homes.

The 14 Garden Towns are: Long Marston, Oxfordshire Cotswold, Tresham, Culm, Welborne, West Carclaze, Dunton Hills, Spitalgate Heath, Halsnead, Longcross, Bailrigg, Infinity Garden Village, St Cuthberts and Handforth.

Measures apply to England only.

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A Doncaster-based scrap car dismantling and salvage firm has been ordered to pay nearly £25,000 for breaking environmental laws at a site in Tyne & Wear.

Motorhog Ltd, which used the now-closed site on Wallsend Road in North Shields, to depollute and bale end of life vehicles, repeatedly broke the terms of its environmental permit. Yesterday (29 November 2017) the company, which continues to operate sites in Leeds, Doncaster and Hull, was fined £20,000 by North Tyneside Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to two of three charges. It was also ordered to pay £4,936.88 costs.

The prosecution was brought by the Environment Agency after officers spent a significant amount of time attempting, unsuccessfully, to bring the site into compliance.

Environment Agency Officers visited the site on 1 December 2015 to assess permit compliance after several breaches were identified during a previous inspection. During the visit they identified further permit breaches, against which they issued two enforcement notices.

The first gave Motorhog Ltd until 8 February 2016 to carry out maintenance to the vehicle baler so it could operate without spilling or leaking potentially polluting materials. It also required the company to clean all observed spillages on site and keep appropriate records.

The second notice required Motorhog Ltd to either ensure the concrete surface where the vehicle baler operated was compliant with permit requirements or to move the baler to a more suitable area. The firm was given until 11 April 2016 to comply.

Environment Agency Officers visited the site again on 2 March and 12 April and noted failure to comply with each of the orders. They also noted unattended spills throughout the site, including fluids visibly leaking from the baler onto the surface below where there was no sealed drainage.

Environment Agency spokesperson, Rachael Caldwell, said:

I hope that Motorhog Ltd takes a long hard look at its operations across the north to ensure that all its sites are compliant and its staff are properly trained.

The regulations exist to protect the environment and local communities from the risk of harm. Vehicles contain liquids that are harmful to the environment and they must be dealt with correctly.

We will not hesitate to take action against any operator that repeatedly breaks the law and disregards its environmental obligations.

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