QMS switch to quango confirmed in shake-up.

(From Aberdeen Press & Journal (UK))

Scotland's meat promotion body is to become a quango.

The Scottish Executive yesterday confirmed that Quality Meat Scotland will from next April be a non-departmental public body (NDPB).

The switch will end industry ownership of the seven-year-old organisation which has an annual budget of GBP6.545million and full control of the GBP4.18million in statutory levies collected from livestock producers and meat processors in Scotland.

The transfer to state control has been prompted by the Radcliffe Review into Britain's agricultural levy boards and its recommendation to scrap the existing Meat and Livestock …