From 1 April the State Veterinary Service (SVS), an executive agency of the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), will change its name to Animal Health.

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The move brings together, under a single agency, all the expertise previously offered by SVS, the Dairy Hygiene and Egg Marketing Inspectorates and the Wildlife Licensing and Registration Service. The formation of this new single body is in line with recommendations made by the Hampton Review, which considered more efficient approaches to regulation and looked at how to cut the time businesses have to spend on paperwork and other regulatory activities.

Glenys Stacey, Chief Executive of Animal Health, said:

“We plan to become one organisation in every sense. Already, Dairy Hygiene and Egg Marketing staff share premises with us or will do so after our merger and we will continue with this theme.

“The conservation work done by our Wildlife Licensing and Registration colleagues brings a new type of work to the organisation and again we welcome the opportunity it gives us to work more widely in animal health and welfare.

“We all welcome this merger; together we can deliver more comprehensively and with the customer in mind.”

The re-naming of the enlarged agency under a single banner, Animal Health, will also ensure a single coherent identity that will be easily recognisable and apparent to the industry, other customers and the public.

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