Introduction

The Meat and Livestock Commission (MLC) was established under the 1967 Agriculture Act. The aim of the organisation is to promote greater efficiency in the livestock and livestock products industries of Great Britain whilst caring for the interests of the consumer.

MLC raises a statutory levy on animals slaughtered or exported to fund its activities. This statutory levy is substantially augmented by commercial income from the livestock industry. The Agriculture Minister may appoint up to 15 Commissioners, there are 14 at present, 9 from within the industry and 5 independents. The board of Commissioners is responsible for setting policy for MLC. A Director General and three executive directors report to the board of Commissioners. These four directors are responsible for the day to day management of MLC and for the execution of policy. The Commission is operationally structured into 6 divisions focused clearly on the needs of the industry.

Achievements in 1996/97

1996/97 has been a particularly difficult year for the meat and livestock industry and MLC. The announcement in March 1996 of a possible link between BSE and a new variant of CJD in younger people, caused widespread disruption in all markets for beef. MLC has concentrated during the year on restoring consumer confidence in beef and beef products and at the same time ensuring that lamb and pigmeat products capitalise on opportunities created by consumers searching for alternative meal solutions. MLC's work in this area during 1996/97 culminated in the launch of a its minced beef initiative featuring a rosette which sought to assure consumers that only prime cuts of beef are used in the manufacture of mince. The initiative boosted sales of minced beef by 18%.

MLC was heavily involved in BSE control schemes enforcement work for the Intervention Board, causing an increase in the Commission's staffing level. MLC's blueprint specifications for improving eating quality was widely taken up by the industry and the novel BLUP (Best Linear Unbiased Predictor) breeding techniques developed by MLC are being taken up widely by the cattle and sheep breeding industries.

MLC's Service Standards proposals were accepted by MAFF in March 1995 and its Citizen's Charter leaflet was published in April 1995. MLC has given its public commitment to achieve the IiP standard and is currently evaluating practices against the standard with a view to undertaking the IiP assessment in the near future. The Commission seeks to reduce its dependence on statutory levy by raising external funds to help finance its core activities. It has raised £6.6m of external funding during 1996/97 from its industry and the European Commission.

Plans for 1997/98

MLC will continue its activities to restore consumer confidence in beef during 1997/98. The plans continue to include a high proportion of expenditure on advertising and promotion and a continuation of the mince beef initiative. A major new initiative will be the launch of an independent organisation, Assured British Meat which will develop and implement standards for a consumer assurance scheme for British meat. MLC will part fund this activity.

Key Performance Targets

MLC sets key performance targets for all its activities on an annual basis, these are reported within its corporate plan. The actual performance against targets is reviewed by Commissioners on an annual basis. MLC has created a range of targets which measure the effectiveness and efficiency of all its activities. The targets identified below are a selection of the headline objectives. New baselines for new targets have been set during 1996/97 and these new targets will be reported in future reviews.

Key Performance Targets
	1994/95		1995/96		1996/97		1997/98
Key Measure	Set	Achieved	Set	Achieved	Set	Forecast	Set
Maintain the National Health Survey score for "eating meat as much as ever" (%)	36.5	38	36.5	38	36.5	37.5	36.5
Percentage of secondary schools using at least one MLC resource (%)	-	51	51	58	51	71	75
Improve the quality of meat by the uptake of MLC's blueprint techniques. Percentage of target companies using MLC specification (%)	-	-	60	60	60	67	60
Staff costs per pound expenditure. Reduce by 2.5% annually (%)	-2.5	-18.9	-2.5	-2.5	-2.5	-2.5	-2.5
Staff numbers per £1m by expenditure. Reduce by 2.5% annually (%)	-2.5	-17.4	-2.5	-2.5	-2.5	-13.5	-2.5
Cost recovery for commercial services. Target full cost recovery by 1996 (%)	90	90.9	100	99.2	100	104.7	102