Agenda Item 1 the Board S Role in Health and Safety

SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE FORTY SEVENTH MEETING OF THE AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE DEVELOPMENT BOARD HELD AT STONELEIGH PARK ON

MONDAY 23 AND TUESDAY 24 NOVEMBER 2015

PRESENT

Ian Crute, Fiona Fell, Gill Fine, Gwyn Jones, Peter Kendall (Chair), Will Lifford, George Lyon, Adam Quinney (241115 only), Gary Taylor, Paul Temple, Meryl Ward

IN ATTENDANCE: Chris Goodwin, Jane King, Tim Mordan (24/11/15 only), Sue Walker

INTRODUCTION

Peter Kendall (PK) informed the Board that Adam Quinney (AQ) had been appointed to the Board with additional responsibility to Chair the Beef and Lamb Sector Board and would be joining the meeting.

AGENDA ITEM 1 – THE BOARD’S ROLE IN HEALTH AND SAFETY

Emma Ewing (EE) joined the meeting for this item. EE is AHDB’s external independent Health and Safety consultant. The purpose of the session was to provide the Board with information as to its obligations and legal responsibilities for health and safety and provide a view of AHDB’s Health and Safety arrangements. It is intended that the Board should undertake a health and safety refresher on a yearly basis.

Chris Goodwin (CG) confirmed to the Board that AHDB “prioritise health and safety very seriously”. This subject was a standing item on the agenda of the Board as well as the Leadership Team. In addition to this, the newly established Employee Forum was another mechanism for raising concerns in this area. Health and Safety courses were run on a regular basis and EE informed the Board that the schedule for next year had been prepared. Health and safety training was mandatory for all AHDB staff and in particular those working for MLCSL. Will Lifford (WL) suggested that it would be of value to have health and safety benchmarking information included in the Board pack on a yearly basis.

The Health and Safety Policy had recently been amended. Consideration will be given to including health and safety as part of the PDR process, requiring every member of staff to sign off that they have read and understood the Policy.

It was confirmed that CG is the Board’s Health and Safety risk champion.

Fiona Fell (FF) asked for an update relating to the Stoneleigh Park entrance. JK informed the Board that the site landlord had submitted plans to Warwick District Council. A Stoneleigh Park Tenants Forum had been established which had representatives from AHDB.

The next Health and Safety Audit will take place in February 2016. EE considered that AHDB discharges its obligations in respect of Health and Safety and addresses its risks appropriately.

AGENDA ITEM 2 – HR STRATEGY

Rebecca Geraghty (RG) joined the meeting for this item.

The HR Strategy paper provided a set of coordinated work streams over a three year plan, aimed at integrating AHDB’s organisation, culture, people and systems in order to achieve its goals. The components of the HR Strategy were underpinned by AHDB’s corporate objectives. Since the formation of AHDB in 2008, approaches to people management, learning and development, reward, etc. had been addressed in silos. Earlier this year, a strategic view was taken of the organisation which led to a change programme being announced in July. The vision of the structure was to move towards one unified organisation with one cohesive HR strategy.

A management development training pilot had taken place recently. Parity Professionals had been awarded the contract to undertake management development training and this would commence in January. All managers would be expected to attend. An internal sponsorship board will be established; RG asked that a member of the Board was nominated to sit on this group.

The Board congratulated RG in pulling together the strategy in such a short space of time and gave the document its approval.

AGENDA ITEM 3 – APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

There were no apologies for absence.

AGENDA ITEM 4 – DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Gary Taylor (GT) informed the Board that he had stepped down from his roles at Lea Valley Growers Association.

AGENDA ITEM 5- MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING HELD ON 28-29 SEPTEMBER, 2015

The minutes of the Board meeting that had taken place on 28-29 September, 2015 were accepted as a true record and signed by the Chairman.

AGENDA ITEM 6 - MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MEETING HELD ON 28-29 SEPTEMBER 2015

HR

It was agreed that members of the Leadership Team apart from JK and CG would only attend Board meetings as required. Consideration will be given to changing the board agenda into themes i.e. strategy, governance, policy, etc.

MLCSL

JK provided the Board with an update on MLCSL. John Cross had decided to retire from the post of Chairman from 1 January, 2016. A new Chairman with expertise in the livestock sector was to be sought along with a Commercial Director to add the requested management resource and expertise. A role profile for the Commercial Director was being prepared and will be advertised as soon as is practicable.

AgriTech

Steve Tones (Sector Strategy Director, Horticulture) had produced a summary document outlining the mechanism of engagement between AHDB and each of the three centres (ChAP, CIEL and EPIC) and the associated costs and risks to which AHDB might be exposed. This document will be circulated to the Board. ACTION: A summary document outlining the mechanism of engagement between AHDB and each of the three centres (ChAP, CIEL and EPIC) and the associated costs and risks to which AHDB might be exposed will be circulated to the Board

Meryl Ward (MW) informed the Board that she was endeavouring to secure a seat for AHDB on the CIEL Board.

Clarity was being sought from Government on whether AHDB could fund the centres owing to levy money being treated as a parafiscal tax.

Disease Control

Christine Walsh had attended a meeting with Defra on 26 October to discuss the value of an independent service to government with regard to disease control, such as had been delivered through MLCSL in the past.

AGENDA ITEM 7 - SECTOR REPORTS

Beef and Lamb

Gill Fine (GF) cited the work that had been done across the organisation in preparing for and managing the announcement from the International Agency for Research on cancer (IARC) of suggested links between red meat and cancer.

GF thanked WL for his review undertaken following the issues around the spending controls and resignation of Stuart Roberts. JK informed the Board that Nick Allen was now responsible for liaising with Government on spending controls and was currently building a clear timeline for the next round of marketing activity. There was a need to secure a single point of contact within Defra. There was a requirement to go through Crown Commercial Services (CCS) for procurement where practicable but it had been identified that for some of the trade and technical work there were no specialists in these areas within CCS. AHDB would continue to be scrutinised with regard to marketing activity and it was important to be able to demonstrate and justify why the work was being undertaken. The third raft of activity around the “Pulled Pork” campaign will take place in April/May 2016 and permission would have to be sought in the next week or so. Once we have approval for the campaigns it will be important to communicate this to levy payers.

JK informed the Board that KPMG had been conducting a procurement audit which had flagged up some audit trail issues in the marketing area which were still under consideration. The report would be finalised and submitted to the March 2016 Audit and Risk Assurance Committee (ARAC) meeting.

Cereals and Oilseeds

Paul Temple (PT) asked for the report to be taken as read.

The Grain Market Outlook Conference held on 14 October had been very successful and received very positive feedback. A rebranded and refreshed edition of Grain Outlook had been circulated at the end of October.

Cereal prices remain flat and low which was partly driven by a large carry over from the last season.

Confirmation had been received relating to the sign off by the Chinese of the barley protocol.

A Monitor Farm Workshop had been held on 17 November.

Dairy

Gwyn Jones (GJ) asked for the report to be taken as read.

Amanda Ball had started her new role as Strategy Director for Dairy.

Two out of three retiring sector board members had agreed to a second term in office. Richard Soffe had been appointed as a new independent member of the sector board.

Some work had been undertaken with MI looking at manufacturing opportunities in the sector.

GJ had held some useful meetings with Dairy New Zealand recently, it was apparent that the dairy sector was experiencing challenges throughout the world.

It was expected that the Welsh Deputy Minister will make an announcement regarding the Strategic Framework for Agriculture at the Winter Fair on 30 November together with BPS payments and the RDP in Wales.

George Dunn, Chief Executive of the Tenant Farmers Association had attended the Dairy sector board meeting on 19 November. Mr Dunn had suggested that the AHDB Board meetings should be web cammed. Consideration will be given to PK doing a post-meeting blog.

Tim Mordan (TM) commented that GJ had been having discussions with Defra colleagues about the dairy futures market.

Horticulture

The report was asked to be taken as read.

GT further reported that Chlorate residue levels were a topical issue for most foods and drink. The statutory permitted Maximum Residue Level (MRL) is very low at 0.01mg of chlorate per kilogram of food. Chlorate loading onto foods past the farm-gate was a result of disinfection practices (i.e. the use of chlorine based disinfectant compounds in food processing). EC Member States monitored for chlorate in foods and drink in 2014 and 2015 and found levels above the limit of detection (LOD). Nevertheless they permitted the ongoing trading of food above this level but recently the Commission proposed new MRLs for the different foods. These proposed MRLs are achievable for some produce/food categories but not all. AHDB has responded to the Commission (via the Food Standards Agency and the Health & Safety Executive) as levy payers are concerned about some of proposed MRLs. R&D and KE will be needed to promote best use of chlorine compounds for disinfection or to change water disinfection practices across the food chains, if the proposed MRLs become statutory.

Roma Gwynn had been appointed an independent member of the horticulture sector board. Ms Gwynn has expertise in crop protection.

JK will attend the next horticulture sector board meeting on 9 December to provide an update on the change programme.

There was concern within the horticulture sector around the introduction of the living wage which would cause significant issues for a number of businesses. TM commented that some appraisal work had been done in Defra and he would share this information.

Levy collection was being reviewed. It was clear that there was a need to get better understanding of who the levy payers are and increase the activity in following up queries. CG confirmed that additional resource was to be recruited in the levy team. CG had met with Neville Stein from the Horticulture Sector board to discuss some questions that he had raised around levy collection. CG agreed to look at the wording of the levy enforcement letter as part of the review.

Horticulture roadshows were being planned to complement the Activity Review meetings.

Pork

Average pig prices were currently below the full economic cost of production despite the fall in feed costs. Volumes continued to be above expected (budgeted) levels.

MW had presented at the recent excellent RUMA (Responsible Use of Medicines Alliance) conference which had been chaired by GJ.

The Board was informed that a Statutory Instrument was being developed relating to Porcine Epidemic Diarrhoea Virus (PEDV). It was agreed that AHDB’s role regarding disease surveillance would be discussed in more detail at the next meeting of the Board. ACTION: Disease surveillance will be discussed in more detail at the next Board meeting

Ian Crute (IC) informed the Board that he had been appointed a member of the FERA Science Advisory Group.

WL commented that there had been a lot of publicity in the media relating to antibiotics, which MW said the pork board was looking at closely. An electronic medicines hub was in the process of being built as a joint partnership between AHDB Pork and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate. This would enable electronic capture of antibiotic use to provide accurate information and a means of benchmarking. The hub would be suitable for use by other species. FF noted that animal and human health as “One Health” was on the agenda with the British Veterinary and Medical Associations.

Potatoes

The potato sector board had been reviewing its own efficiency and the role of the sub-committees. This had resulted in a reduction in the number of board meetings from 6 to 4 which dovetailed into the AHDB planning cycles. Committees had been made slicker and quicker and more action-orientated. This will result in a more meaningful feed of recommendations into the sector board whilst maintaining industry participation and advocacy for AHDB within the sector.