My second Quango for the chop.

The Food Standards Agency.

The FSA was established on 1 April 2000
by Act of Parliament (Food Standards
Act 1999).

I wonder what we did before this quango was established?

We did of course have this:

The Meat Hygiene Service (MHS) was
originally established on 1st April 1995.

What  I can't understand is why did we ever need them in the first place? In my childhood we never had people dying by the thousands, with bodies littering the houses and streets of the country.

Why not, you ask?

Because we had cookery classes in school which taught the basics about food preparation, storage and hygiene.

We also had parents who passed on their knowledge gained by their experience.

And none of this cost an eye watering £155,000,000 per annum.

The net cost of the FSA was £155m against
available funding of £160m to 31 March
2009.

Their success rate is astounding. Look at the huge amount of successful prosecutions that they have accomplished with taxpayer funded millions.

However, it is possible to report on all
those cases that were concluded during
2008/09. Overall, 18 cases (comprising
a total of 106 individual charges) were
brought before the courts by the FSA,
Defra, or Procurators fiscal during the year.
The charges laid in these cases covered a
total of 41 separate referrals from the MHS.
Convictions were secured in 14 of the
cases. One case resulted in acquittal with
proceedings withdrawn in three cases.

Rant over. I rest my case.

 

The FSA