The Food Standards Agency was created in 2001 and is a non-ministerial government department. It is responsible for protecting public health in relation to food throughout the United Kingdom and is led by a board appointed to act in the public interest. The Food Standards Agency provides the Chair and secretarial support to The Chemical Hazards and Identification Risk Surveillance Group (CHaIRS).
We have asked the FSA for a number of the minutes for these meetings, which before this were not being made publicly available. They have provided some very significant information concerning Rattlechain lagoon, and how different agencies underplayed the importance of white phosphorus at the lagoon concerning bird deaths.