Day 130 - 26 May 95 - Page 44
1 A. Andrew Foster, who did the Health and Safety Executive
2 assessment.
3
4 Q. You were the liaison person?
5 A. I was coordinating the meetings.
6
7 Q. You had lots of informal discussions and formal discussions
8 and thing likes that?
9 A. Quite a few discussions, yes.
10
11 Q. As to why McDonald's was chosen for this particular report,
12 I think you mentioned something about some kind of national
13 profile or something; is it because they were interested in
14 the catering industry and they wanted to look at McDonald's
15 as an example and see what they could learn, or something
16 like that?
17 A. From memory, what Andrew Foster told me, at the time
18 they were interested in various organisations, involved --
19 various organisations, across the industry and they had
20 never actually worked with a catering organisation like our
21 own before, so one of the reasons they were interested in
22 coming to us, and carry out the assessment, was to see what
23 they could learn from us as being a different sector, But
24 also, as I explained, at the time we were liaising with
25 around about 300 different local authorities. Obviously,
26 the benefits to us, and to them, in coming to us and giving
27 us the benefit of their expertise, was something that
28 worked on both sides.
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Think what you want to make of the report.
31 It may be significant because it might be thought it is an
32 independent and expert enquiry, in some depth, into
33 McDonald's, nearer to the time when you are alleged to have
34 played a part in publishing the leaflet. A lot of evidence
35 we have heard, and Mr. Rampton, to some extent anyway,
36 asked, if my memory serves me correctly, Mrs. Barnes about
37 matters where she might have a reservation about it, so
38 I am going to be inclined to think, unless you, Ms. Steel
39 or Mr. Rampton argue to the contrary,, at the end of the
40 day, that it might be a pretty fair independent assessment
41 of the situation, for good or bad, so far as McDonald's are
42 concerned.
43
44 There are some complimentary things about McDonald's and
45 there are some criticisms or, at least, some suggestions
46 about how they might reassess the situation and improve
47 things. If that is an even-handed approach, you do not
48 have to put to Mrs. Barnes: "Do you agree with this?" or
49 "What do you make of that?"
50
51 MR. MORRIS: No, I was not going to.
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Are you content with that?
54
55 MR. RAMPTON: She did say, when I asked her the general question
56 -----
57
58 MR. JUSTICE BELL: She was complimentary.
59
60 MR. RAMPTON: She said: "A very fair and balanced account".
