Wine Standards Board merges with Food Standards Agency

The Wine Standards Board (WSB) will merge with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) on 1 July 2006, Defra announced today. The merger will help simplify and reduce the number of enforcement bodies currently operating in the United Kingdom.

The merger is one of the recommendations of the Hampton Review, published in March 2005 to simplify the enforcement activity in England and reduce the number of enforcement bodies. It will result in the FSA taking over responsibility for enforcing the EU wine regime in the UK.

Minister for Sustainable Farming and Food, Jeff Rooker said:

"I welcome this merger because it will help to reduce the burden on the wine industry through greater use of risk-based and targeted inspections, which in turn will bring benefits for consumers too.

"I am pleased that officials in Defra, the FSA and WSB have been able to work closely to implement Philip Hampton's recommendation quickly."

Deirdre Hutton, Chair of the Food Standards Agency said:

"This is good news for the WSB and for us. We are delighted to welcome the team here and we will be working hard to exploit synergies between us.

"In particular we are looking forward to expanding our expertise and sharing our experience on sampling and verifying the authenticity and composition of wines in order to protect consumers in this very important market."

Following the merger, policy responsibility for wine-making practices, labelling of wine and the vineyard register will transfer from Defra to the Food Standards Agency. Defra will retain policy responsibility for all other aspects of the CAP wine regime and for industry sponsorship.