GROCERIES OMBUDSMAN MUST HAVE REAL AUTHORITY TO BE EFFECTIVE

4.10.00pm GMT Thu 14th Jan 2010

Jim Hume, Liberal Democrat MSP for the South of Scotland, has welcomed the news the UK Government has accepted the Competition Commission's recommendation to establish an independent body as a 'supermarket ombudsman'.

UK Ministers announced earlier this week that they had accepted the recommendation that an independent body be established to enforce the new Groceries Supply Code of Practice due to come into force in February 2010.

Jim Hume said:

"This announcement is as welcome as it is overdue. My Liberal Democrat colleagues and I have been calling for the establishment of a genuinely independent ombudsman for some time.

"The UK Government has now accepted that a groceries ombudsman is necessary to oversee the food supply chain and Ministers must now get on with the business of making that a reality. Farmers and growers have long struggled with inherent imbalances which have existed in the food supply chain and the creation of an ombudsman will be one step closer to a fair deal for producers in East Lothian and the wider South of Scotland.

"Having now accepted what everyone else could see as inevitable they must now act without further delay to set up the supermarket ombudsman and to give it the resources it needs to do its job properly."