Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to increase competition in the market for Food Standards Agency-related veterinary services.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has a programme of operational transformation in place to modernise the model for delivery of official controls, including veterinary services, in approved meat premises. This programme will define the future specification for contracted services, with an aim to altering the markets that the FSA procures from to help improve competition levels. The FSA is committed to providing an update on this work later in 2021.