The Office of Fair Trading has been slammed by Sir Don Curry for holding up implementation of the government’s Sustainable Farming and Food policy.
Sir Don, who chairs the group overseeing implementation of the government’s food chain strategy, said that his team had made good progress in all but one of the major policy areas it was tackling.
The one problem area, he said, was the code of retail practice, where his group was waiting for the OFT to publish its review on the working of the code.
The OFT announced the review in February and had originally said that it intended to report by the summer. However, the date has constantly slipped back since then.
Sir Don said: “We anticipate the response in the new year, either January or February. I have written to the director general John Vickers to express my concern about this.
“We are concerned because we are waiting for the OFT to report before we can take this forward.”
Sir Don was also critical of the OFT’s failure to implement fully the recommendations made by the Policy Commission on Sustainable Farming and Food, which he chaired.
He said: “We recommended that not only should the code be reviewed in terms of its
effectiveness but it should be rolled out on a voluntary basis across the whole industry.
“It is quite unacceptable that, for whatever reason, the OFT decided only those retailers with 8% market share or more
should have those special sets of terms and conditions imposed upon them.”
He said everyone was aware of “mistrust and strained relationships within the food chain” and it was essential to put in place mechanisms to help the industry develop relationships based on trust.
When his group was able to carry out its review, said Sir Don, one of the areas it would concentrate on was the appeals procedure. He said suppliers were reluctant to trigger the process because they feared it would jeopardise their relationships.
Sir Don said he was aware of The Grocer Reader Panel (November 29, p4) which showed manufacturers favoured setting up an ombudsman to handle complaints.
He would not say whether he favoured this option, but it would feature in discussion with stakeholders.
John Wood
Sir Don, who chairs the group overseeing implementation of the government’s food chain strategy, said that his team had made good progress in all but one of the major policy areas it was tackling.
The one problem area, he said, was the code of retail practice, where his group was waiting for the OFT to publish its review on the working of the code.
The OFT announced the review in February and had originally said that it intended to report by the summer. However, the date has constantly slipped back since then.
Sir Don said: “We anticipate the response in the new year, either January or February. I have written to the director general John Vickers to express my concern about this.
“We are concerned because we are waiting for the OFT to report before we can take this forward.”
Sir Don was also critical of the OFT’s failure to implement fully the recommendations made by the Policy Commission on Sustainable Farming and Food, which he chaired.
He said: “We recommended that not only should the code be reviewed in terms of its
effectiveness but it should be rolled out on a voluntary basis across the whole industry.
“It is quite unacceptable that, for whatever reason, the OFT decided only those retailers with 8% market share or more
should have those special sets of terms and conditions imposed upon them.”
He said everyone was aware of “mistrust and strained relationships within the food chain” and it was essential to put in place mechanisms to help the industry develop relationships based on trust.
When his group was able to carry out its review, said Sir Don, one of the areas it would concentrate on was the appeals procedure. He said suppliers were reluctant to trigger the process because they feared it would jeopardise their relationships.
Sir Don said he was aware of The Grocer Reader Panel (November 29, p4) which showed manufacturers favoured setting up an ombudsman to handle complaints.
He would not say whether he favoured this option, but it would feature in discussion with stakeholders.
John Wood
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