CAMP MATTERS WITH STEVE POINTING
A Report for FIBS by Sian Ferguson (SF) 03/12/04
SF: I have in the studio with me Senior Veterinary Officer, Steve Pointing (SP), who will be talking about a range of issues concerning the Veterinary Department. First of all, the draft paper written by the security consultants, John Hellstrom and Bruce Simpson has been published. Can you just take us through the main recommendations and concerns that they made?
SP: It’s quite a long document - 62 pages in all. We haven’t yet got the final report. We’re still in the draft stage because they have come back to us and asked whether we are happy with the way it’s presented and if not, are there any changes we would like to be made. So, we are in that stage at the moment. We have written back to them suggesting a few things that we would like to see changed. And, we should have the final report sometime in the next week or two.
It’s difficult to pull out of it all the recommendations because all together, they have made 96 recommendations so I don’t want to take the whole programme going through each one. The one I’d like to home in on is that they are recommending that we should create a new position - that of a bio security officer. And, If I could just read what they say about that because I can’t explain it any better than they have written it:
“There is an understandable lack of Biological expertise in current boarder services provided by Customs. The tasks and priorities of Immigration activities are quite different from those required by Bio Security Services. There are a large number of new and existing activities that logically could be brought into a single job description for a bio security officer. While the person filling this position should have front-line responsibilities for a number of functions, Agriculture and Veterinary staff, with current bio security roles should continue to provide specialist and relief support to the bio security officer.”
So, that’s the main recommendation - that we should have a new post - and that person will be responsible for looking after many of the recommendations that are made throughout this document.
SF: Once the final report has been submitted, to FIG, how long will it be before Government will start making changes?
SP: One of the things we have asked them to change within the document is, I say with 96 recommendations, it’s a bit daunting to know where to start. Which of those recommendations are the most important ones? One of the things we’ve asked them to do is to make an addendum to the report and, in that addendum, prioritise the recommendations so that we can actually have them grouped together - the most important ones, the next most important and the ones you can do some time in the future, when funds or personnel allow them to be done.
And, when we get that part of the report back, which hasn’t been written yet, then we will be able to go forward to EXCO with some recommendations as to what things need to be implemented and sort of look at a time-scale. So, the early things - things that are urgently needing to be done, hopefully, they will be done by the end of next year or the middle of next year. And, little by little, we will be feeding some of the recommendations, which are less urgent, over the next year or two years - five years, depending on what sort of time-scale we are looking at.
SF: You mentioned about a security officer. What do you think is the possibility of this post actually becoming …
SP: That will be one of the recommendations. Obviously, they consider it to be important. We think it’s important. The responsibilities of this person, if we decide to have this post, the sort of things they would do as far as the document is concerned, are the following:
· They would inspect the passenger declaration cards at the airport and they would make decisions on bags to be inspected
· Assistance with inspections,
· Making decisions on risk goods encountered.
· Inspect incoming consignments of risk goods to ensure compliance with bio security requirements.
· And, make decisions on release of those goods.
· Ensure that security measures apply to ships’ garbage
· Ensure that security measures apply to the bonded store for risk goods destined for fisheries vessels are complied with.
Those are some of the things that come out of the document. That possibly wouldn’t be a full-time job. But there are other things that we would like to see done within the Agriculture Department, which would go in very nicely with this sort of position. And, if we added some of the bits and pieces that we would like to see covered, it probably would like up a full-time job. Yes. I think there is a possibility that we would like to see a person in this sort of post, providing EXCO agree, from the 1st of July next year.
SF: Are there any other parts of the report that you think particularly stand out?
SP: It is difficult to home in on anything particular because it covers a much wider range. My area is obviously a veterinary and agriculture interest. But it covers a broader remit than that. So I don’t feel that competent to comment on all the aspects of the report. There are some areas that interest me more and have more personal relevance to me than others. So, I don’t think I can really pick out anything. It’s a document, really, that needs to be taken as a whole rather than picking out individually important aspects.
SF: Moving on to the veterinary service, in the last meeting of Executive Council, there was a new schedule of charges agreed for the veterinary service. Could you just run through what they are?
SP: I won’t do that exactly because the format of the new charges are slightly different to the old ones. Just to say that normally we review or revise our veterinary fees in January every year, so this is nothing new. This is an annual event. From an EXCO paper that was submitted in about 1999, we decided at that point that the veterinary charges in the Falkland Islands were very, very low compared with other developed countries. At that point I made a recommendation that we should increase veterinary fees by up to 25% a year for the next 5 years. Well, we have now got to five years after that paper and, I don’t think we have ever put the prices up 25% in one year.
We tend, on average, to put them up by 10% a year, which is a big figure. But when you realise we were starting from a very low initial figure, we still haven’t got any ridiculous figures. If we compare the fees in the Falkland Islands with those in the UK, we are charging only a quarter or a third of the charges that would be paid for veterinary services in the UK. We are more on a par with some of the prices that would be charged in New Zealand. We are probably cheaper than there as well. Although prices have gone up, I still think the prices we are charging offer the pet owner and farmer some very good value for money.
SF: And, are there any new charges that have been introduced?
SP: There aren’t really any new ones. We’ve simplified the charging for certain procedures rather than have a set cost for a set procedure. In some instances, we have actually gone over to charging on a time basis. Things that we will charge so much per hour - things that take longer we will charge more for and things that are quicker to do we will charge less for. We think that’s a fairer way of doing things.
That’s as far as the veterinary fees go but we are then introducing as from July of next year, there will be charges for fishing boat inspections. This takes up quite a lot of Veterinary time during fishing seasons. It’s been suggested before and we are really working very much - Councillors are wanting charges to be made for these sorts of things. It takes up Government time. And, in most developed countries, although the Government would supply the service, they would not be supplying the service free of charge. So, I think we are falling into line with what happens in other countries around the world. EXCO approved the proposed fees for fishing boat inspections to come in from July of next year.
And, at the same time, we will also be levying charges on the Abattoir for some of the services that we provide down there. What has been proposed is that we do residue testing to make sure there are no nasty chemicals drugs in the meat. We have to send the samples to a laboratory in the UK. The Abattoir will be responsible for paying for those samples to be tested. There’s other laboratory testing that needs to be done - looking at bacteriology and cleanliness of the Abattoir on a regular basis. A lot of those samples are processed through the KEMH laboratory in the Hospital. Any charges levied by the Hospital will be paid for by the Abattoir.
The other thing the vets here have to do is issue health certificates to accompany the meat back to the European Union. We will be charging for the issuing of those Health Certificates as from the beginning of next year - from January.
Coming in, in July of next year - so actually it won’t apply until the export season of 2006 - but as from the 1st of July 2005 we are also going to charge for the costs of providing the Abattoir with an official veterinary surgeon and a meat hygiene inspector. At the moment, the costs of their salaries and their time is borne by the Department of Agriculture. In future, after the middle of next year, those two posts will still be employed within the Department of Agriculture and we will pay them from Government but a charge will be made to the Abattoir in order to recoup the cost of their salaries.
One more thing on veterinary charges, is that we proposed to put the Dog Licence fee up. Currently, it is at £15.00 a year, payable from the 1st of January. We are proposing to put the Dog Licence up to £25.00 a year, which is quite a steep increase - not quite double. It has been at £15.00 a year for several years now. The reason we have decided to put it up is that we do 6-weekly worming of all dogs in Stanley and the same happens within Camp as well, against Hydatid disease. We are not planning to stop doing that until we have finally eradicated Hydatid disease. The drugs are provided free at the veterinary surgery on Dog Dosing Day and, one of the ways we have to pay for that is through the Dog Licence. The cost of the drugs certainly hasn’t gone down in the last 15 or 20 years. Like most things, it’s gone up. So that we recoup something towards the cost of the drugs used for Hydatid eradication, we feel this is a fair way of doing it. It means everybody, then, has to pay the £25.00 Dog Licence and for that, they will then get their treatment against Hydatid disease throughout the year free of charge. The increase will cover the cost of that treatment.
SF: does everyone have to register their dogs?
SP: The only people who have to pay a dog licence are those who have pet dogs within Stanley or pet dogs in Camp. Working dogs are not required to pay a licence. It only applies to pet animals. So, those pet animals in Stanley and at MPA (And in Camp).
SF: I understand there is going to be the introduction of new Agricultural declaration cards at the airport. What are these for?
SP: You are right. We were going to introduce them before the bio security consultants arrived but we never quite got around to doing so. And, they certainly thought it was a very good idea to have something like that in place. So, we introduced them for the first time on the LanChile flight last Saturday. Because it was the first time, and the Customs Officers weren’t quite sure how it was going to work, and neither was I quite sure how it was going to work, I went down and gave them a hand and I collected the completed forms from the passengers as they passed immigration before they got to the Customs search area.
But I must admit it went extremely well. I was very pleased with how smoothly it went. The idea behind it is that we are trying to make sure that no one is going to bring in to the country anything that might cause a risk to either live animals on farms in the Islands, or to plant material - things like weed seeds or some plant disease, on fruit, vegetables, meat products - the sort of things that people buy when they are on holiday - something they tried - they liked to eat when they were in a country while they were on holiday - and they think it would be a good idea to take it back home. Sometimes it’s not a very good idea to take it back home, so we are just checking to see what sort of things they are bringing into the country.
On the declaration card, there are four or five different sections. One is asking whether the person has been on a farm in the last 14 days, or do they have any sheering equipment on them, or sheering clothes, any plant material, products of vegetable origin, wooden products, carrying soil or any animal material or products of animal origin, such as skins, wool, bone - that sort of thing. And, if anybody answers yes to any of those questions, then they will be asked further questions in more depth. And, if the need arises, then we will ask to look at the products and just check that they are safe to come into the country or not. If they are not, they will be confiscated and taken away for destruction.
SF: And, whose required to fill in these?
SP: Everyone. It applies to visitors to the Islands, also to returning Falkland Islands residents. I would like to get that message across because, on the LanChile flights, It’s likely that they will be handed out with immigration forms. Of course, many Falkland Islands residents don’t have to fill it in because they have their stamp in their passport. It’s important that anybody from the Falkland Islands returning home realises that they also have to fill in the quarantine declaration form. They will be issued on LanChile by the stewards and stewardesses. If you don’t get given one there, they will be available in the arrivals lounge at MPA. So you can pick them up and fill them out while you are waiting to pick up your bags.
SF: You mentioned that it was going to be handed out on the LanChile Flight. What happens if you are coming down through the RAF?
SP: Because we are not sure how it’s going to work, we are going to introduce it in stages. So, for the first month or two, we are just going to introduce it on LanChile and see how it goes. And, if there is anything that needs to be changed, we will set up the system, using LanChile, with the idea that sometime in the early new year, January, Possibly February, it will then be introduced on to the RAF flights as well. But, by that time, we should have got over any teething problems and the system should be working reasonably well.
SF: Thank you very much for coming in.
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