Food Standards Agency: Contractors
House of Lords
Baroness Byford (Conservative)
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of the 2012-13 charge-out rate for a contracted official veterinarian comprises the cost paid by the Food Standards Agency to the contractor; what are the overheads covered by the rest of the charge-out rate; and what percentages they represent.
Earl Howe (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Quality), Health; Conservative)
The 2012-13 hourly charge-out rate for a Food Standards Agency (FSA) official veterinarian (OV) is £36.80. The charge-out rate is the same for employed and contracted OVs. The cost of contracted OVs is £12.1 million which represents 77% of the total cost of OVs of £15.8 million. The indirect costs relating to OVs are £2.9 million, 18% of the total OV costs. The remaining 5% (£0.8 million) of the costs relate to the OVs directly employed by the FSA. The following are categories of overhead or indirect costs:
operations support;information technology;human resources;finance;depreciation/amortisation;travel-plant based staff;planning/estates;laundry/equipment;legal/internal audit health and safety;comms;procurement;chief executive and board;chief scientist/economists; and food safety policy/strategy.
The details of the direct and indirect costs for OVs are broken down in the following table:
| OV industry charge rate | 2012-13 |
| £m | |
| Salaries-employed staff | 0.6 |
| Overtime-employed staff | 0.0 |
| National insurance cost-employed staff | 0.1 |
| Pensions-monthly employer contributions | 0.1 |
| Contractor cost to FSA | 12.1 |
| Direct cost | 12.9 |
| OV proportion of indirect cost | 2.9 |
| Total OV cost | 15.8 |
These details and further information about the FSA costs and charges for 2012-13 are available at: www. food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2012/feb/meatcosts.