Mr. Ingram: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, pursuant to his answer of 12 March, Official Report, column 578,
how many professional scientists and engineers of each category were employed at each grade in each of his Department's agencies in
each year since 1991.[29834]
Mr. Boswell: [holding answer 20 May 1996]:
Responsibility for this matter is delegated to agency chief executives and I have asked them to reply to the hon. Member direct.
Letter from Johnston McNeill to Mr. Adam Ingram, dated 4 June 1996:
As Chief Executive of the Meat Hygiene Service, your question to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food concerning the
number of professional scientists and engineers employed at each grade in each of the Department's agencies has been passed to me
for reply with regard to this Executive Agency. (29834)
The Meat Hygiene Service (MHS) was launched on 1 April 1995 as an Executive Agency of MAFF. It took over from some 300 local
authorities responsibility for enforcement of the hygiene and welfare at slaughter legislation in licensed meat premises in England,
Scotland and Wales. Consequently the MHS employed no scientists or engineers before that date.
The MHS headquarters are based in York where Chief Executive and the supporting functions of Operations, Finance, Human Resources
and Information Technology are based. MHS services are managed by six regional offices. The Head of Operations as well as two of the
regional Managers are qualified Veterinary Surgeons. The MHS also employs Official Veterinary Surgeons to supervise meat inspection
staff working in plants. The MHS directly employs 22 Principal Official Veterinary Surgeons and 16 Official Veterinary Surgeons. In
addition it contracts out work to 110 full time equivalent vets to supplement them. 5 vets are also utilised on a casual basis.
Letter from John FitzGerald to Mr. Adam Ingram, dated 4 June 1996:
In the absence of the Chief Executive on business, I have been asked by the Minister to reply on behalf of the Veterinary Medicines
Directorate to your question about the numbers of professional scientists and engineers employed at the Veterinary Medicines
Directorate in each year since 1991 as this is an operational matter for which the Chief Executive is responsible. (29834)
The number of full time equivalent staff employed as professional software engineers within the Veterinary Medicines Directorate in
each year since 1991 is as follows:
At 1 April
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.
1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996
Senior Executive Officer 1 1 1 1 -- --
Grade 7 -- -- -- -- 1 1
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.
The number of full time equivalent staff employed in scientific grades within the Veterinary Medicines Directorate in each year
since 1991 is as follows:
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.
1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996
Higher Scientific 1 1 -- -- -- 1
Officer
Senior Scientific 3 5 5 5 5 66
Officer
Pharmaceutical Officer I -- 1 1 1 -- --
Research Officer 4 8 7 7.5 6.5 9.4
Senior Research Officer 6 6 5 4 4 3
II
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.
For open structure grades of grade 7 and above, the following numbers of staff hold scientific degrees or equivalent qualifications
and are engaged in the assessment of applications for marketing authorisations for veterinary medicines:
At 1 April
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.
1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996
Grade 7 5 5 5 5 6 7
Grade 6 3 2 2 2 2 2
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.
The Director of Licensing (Grade 5) and the Chief Executive also hold scientific qualifications.
Letter from Phllip Needham to Mr. Adam Ingram, dated 4 June 1996:
The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has asked me to reply to your Parliamentary question in which you asked how many
professional scientists and engineers of each category were employed at each grade in each of his Department's agencies in each year
since 1991.[29834]
ADAS was formed as an Executive Agency of MAFF and the Welsh Office in 1992.
Most of the following posts are held by staff with scientific or engineering qualifications. We are unable to supply figures on a
comparable basis before 1994.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.
April 1994 April 1995 April 1996
ASO 145 145 148
Consultant 587 449 409
Principal consultant -- -- 1
Senior consultant 296 302 294
Grade 5 15 11 11
Grade 6 32 34 32
Grade 7 90 82 68
HSO 45 35 28
Scientific officer 102 84 71
Team manager 93 88 83
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Letter from Mr. T. W. A. Little to Mr. Adam Ingram, dated 4 June 1996:
The Minister has asked me to reply to your question on the number of professional scientists employed in the Veterinary Laboratories
Agency (VLA).
The VLA was established on 1 October 1995, from the merger of the existing Central Veterinary Laboratory with the Veterinary
Investigation Service which was part of the State Veterinary Service. The following information therefore includes figures for the
former Veterinary Investigation Service from October 1995.
No engineers are employed at the VLA. Professional scientists, by grade, employed since 1991 are as follows:
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Number
1 April 1991
Grade 6 7
Grade 7 6
SROII 23
VRO 27
SSO 38
HSO 56
SO 66
ASO 110
333
1 April 1992
Grade 6 6
Grade 7 7
SRO II 19
VRO 24
SSO 32
HSO 57
SO 63
ASO 126
334
1 April 1993
Grade 6 7
Grade 7 7
SROII 21
VRO 25
SSO 34
HSO 56
SO 65
ASO 135
350
1 April 1994
Grade 6 6
Grade 7 8
SROII 20
VRO 24
SSO 33
HSO 56
SO 64
ASO 140
351
1 April 1995
Grade 6 7
Grade 7 6
SROII 15
VRO 21
SSO 32
HSO 52
SO 68
ASO 141
342
1 April 1996
Grade 6 7
Grade 7 6
SROII 15
VRO 24
SSO 32
HSO 49
SO 74
ASO 144
351
Ex VIS 1 April 1996
Gd 6 Supt VIOs 2
Grade 7 1
SROII 0
VIO 45
SSO 12
HSO 14
SO 35
ASO 99
SVIO 12
220
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Casuals have been excluded and part-time counted as "whole posts". Staff on temporary promotion have been counted in their
substantive grades.
Letter from P. I. Stanley to Mr. Adam Ingram, dated 4 June 1996:
The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has asked me to reply to your question about the number of professional scientists
and engineers employed in his Department's Agencies since 1991 in respect of his Central Science Laboratory (CSL) Agency, as this is
an operational matter for which I am responsible.
CSL was first launched as an executive agency of MAFF on 1 April 1992. Prior to that date staffing numbers were included as part of
the departmental total. CSL does not employ engineers. The number of professional scientists employed during the Agency's first year
of operation, 1992-93, was not recorded by grade, however the overall average figure for the year was some 312 out of a total of 443
staff. CSL was relaunched as an enlarged agency on 1 April 1994 following its merger with the MAFF Food Science Laboratories at
Norwich and Aberdeen. The number of professional scientists employed at the start of each subsequent financial year was:
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Grade 1 April 1994 1 April 1995 1 April 1996
Assistant Scientific Officer 103 115 122
Scientific Officer 136 137 145
Higher Scientific Officer 101 115 113
Senior Scientific Officer 69 74 62
Principal Scientific Officer 41 38 30
Grade 6 10 11 13
Grade 5 2 2 2
Grade 3 1 1 1
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.
These figures include those employed on a fixed-term and casual basis.
Letter from G. K. Bruce to Mr. Adam Ingram, dated 4 June 1996:
The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has asked me to reply to your question about how many professional scientists and
engineers have been employed in the Pesticides Safety Directorate (PSD) since 1991, as this is an operational matter for which I am
responsible.
PSD has only been in existence as an Agency since April 1993. Since 1993 the following number of scientific staff have been
employed:
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Grade Number in post
1993
5 1
6 1
7 15
SSO 25
HSO 49
SO 15
ASO 1
1994
5 1
6 1
7 15
SSO 27
HSO 50
SO 20
ASO 6
1995
5 1
6 1
7 15
SSO 28
HSO 52
SO 27
ASO 6
1996
5 1
6 1
7 15
SSO 28
HSO 52
SO 29
ASO 8
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.
All scientific staff within the Agency from Scientific Officer and above hold a bioscience degree or equivalent.
There are not qualified engineers within the Agency.