Joint White & Red Meat Group February 2009 WM/RM/12/02/08 FVO General Audit Introduction 1. The FVO have started to roll out their new approach to auditing Member States. Instead of auditing a specific activity or area (e.g. gelatine, animal feed), by means of an individual mission every two or three years, a more formal three year audit cycle has been adopted by the FVO. 2. The primary intention is to verify that official controls are being carried out in compliance with Community law and in accordance with the National Control Plan (NCP). The NCP for the UK can be found here: National Control Plan for the UK 3. The NCP provides the basis of assessments of the performance of the UK’s national control systems by the Food and Veterinary Office (FVO). It is subject to regular review and is updated as necessary. A report on progress of the implementation of the NCP is sent to the Commission each year. 4. The effectiveness of feed and food law and animal health and welfare rules depends on how well the legislative requirements are monitored and enforced. In order to ensure that the competent authorities are providing an effective and consistent service, European legislation requires that their performance is audited. In some areas, e.g. local authority feed and food law enforcement services, an established audit ...