Recommendation 7

Having left the EU, the regulators need additional staff to deliver their new and expanded responsibilities. CMA told us that it has always been in competition with the private sector for skilled competition lawyers and economists, and the expansion of its role after EU Exit means the scale of this challenge has increased.15 FSA and HSE are both struggling to recruit skilled toxicologists to carry out toxicological assessments in the chemicals and food regulatory regimes.16 Difficulties recruiting and retaining veterinarians to carry out meat hygiene controls was also raised by FSA. Current regulations require veterinarians to be on-site in abattoirs to oversee food hygiene and animal welfare and although this requirement has not changed as a result of EU Exit, the demand for veterinarians has grown, in part because of increased controls on exports to the EU. FSA also told us that 95% of the veterinarians providing this service are from overseas and a significant number used to come from the EU.17 Since EU Exit, these veterinarians must meet English language requirements to be eligible for professional registration and this has been challenging.18 The implications of this were made clear by FSA, which told us that in autumn 2021 the number of official veterinarians it had available dipped to 210 (when it typically needs 260). It described the situation as ‘hand-to-mouth’ as staff no longer in front-line veterinary roles pitched-in to ensure that all shifts in abattoirs were covered.19 9 Q 40 10 Qq 11, 30 11 Q 8, 39 12 Q 36 13 Qq 39–41 14 Q 30 15 Qq 12–13 16 Qq 10, 14–17 17 Qq 3, 9–11, 25–29 18 C&AG’s Report, para 2.15 19 Qq 25–26 10 Regulating after EU Exit