Day 105 - 16 Mar 95 - Page 52
1 Q. Not just the slaughter plants but also the process?
2 A. Yes.
3
4 Q. That is your main source of income, is it, or your sole
5 source of income?
6 A. Yes, from my clients.
7
8 Q. How long have you been advising or working with or getting
9 commercial contracts from abattoirs and process plants?
10
11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Is it since you became a consultant?
12 A. Since I became a consultant. Before that time I was
13 employed as a salaried executive with a wholesale meat
14 company on what you term a commercial basis, that is,
15 freelance.
16
17 Q. Since 1990?
18 A. Yes, since 1990.
19
20 MR. MORRIS: Before that you were working for a meat company?
21 A. Yes.
22
23 Q. I cannot remember what you said now, 25 years or something?
24 A. Yes, 23 to be exact.
25
26 Q. I will amend that crucial piece of information. So, you
27 are very much really part of the industry, your whole
28 background for the last, I do not know, 25, 30 years?
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You spent some years on the enforcement side?
31 A. Yes.
32
33 Q. Some years on the industry side, by what we call the
34 commercial side?
35 A. Yes.
36
37 Q. Now you offer your advice for a fee income to whoever
38 should ---
39 A. Yes, that is the position.
40
41 Q. -- ask for it?
42 A. Yes. I must add that the basis of my position --
43 I hesitate to use the word "expertise" -- is as a member of
44 the Chartered Institution of Environmental Health Officers
45 which I retain that membership, and that still forms the
46 basis of my professional position, if I can put it that
47 way. Many of the duties I would be involved in in the
48 industry were to do with matters, not strictly speaking
49 meat matters, environment, personnel and that sort of
50 thing. But, yes, in answer to your question, I have earned
51 my living in the meat industry for the past 23 plus, 28
52 years.
53
54 MR. MORRIS: Would it be fair to say that it looks after you and
55 you look after it? There is a lot of mutual leeway?
56 A. If you wish to phrase earning one's living, and I am
57 still having to earn it at the age of 64, yes.
58
59 Q. For that reason, you would not want to be critical of that
60 industry?
