MARKS & SPENCER LETTER PLUS SAINSBURY’S & TESCO SUPERMARKET UPDATE

MARKS & SPENCER LETTER Today we sent the third letter in our campaign to major retailers, by e-mailing and posting to Marks & Spencer’s Chief Executive Mr S Rowe. We look forward to his company’s response in due course. As or when we receive a response, we will of course let you know what they have to say. Details of the letter are below. SAINSBURY’S Today, we received a reply to our letter to Sainsbury’s, Chief Operating Officer, Mr M Coupe. In fairness to them, we asked if they wished to publish their response on the Change. Org website. We await their response. TESCO On 28th December 2017, we sent the same letter to Mr D. Lewis, Chief Executive Officer of Tesco. To date, we have not received a reply. We hope that their investigations into the problem they had with their Christmas turkeys is resolved, and that for the sake of consumer confidence, they make their findings public, so those affected can see what went wrong. We noticed some comments on the previous petition update, with some indicating a ruined Christmas, as a result of this occurrence. If we do not receive a reply from M&S or Tesco, four weeks from the date of the original letter, we will be resending the letters until we receive a response. If you use Twitter or Facebook, we would very much appreciate you keep sharing this post. Alternatively, if you wish to bring this letter to the attention of your local store manager, this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all for your continued comments & support. M&S Letter: Mr S Rowe Chief Excecutive Marks & Spencer Group PLC Waterside House 35 North Wharf Road London W2 1NW Don’t Risk lives Keep meat Hygiene inspections Independent. https://www.change.org/p/don-t-risk-lives-keep-meat-inspections-independent Dear Sir, We are sure that your company is aware of the meat hygiene scandals that have recently been in the media, namely the chicken plant in West Bromwich, (covered by the Guardian and ITV News) that appears to supply your company and the “Blowing the whistle on the Meat Industry” by the Bureau of Investigative Jounalism & ITV. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) are planning to reduce the frequency of meat hygiene inspections, reduce the number of directly employed Meat Hygiene Inspectors (MHIs) in slaughterhouses and to continue the practice of them not being present in cutting plants, through a freeze on recruiting new MHIs. This will mean more official controls will be in the private sector, which does not appear to be what your customers support, as a UNISON meat inspection survey by COMRES indicated in December 2016. When the public were asked in this survey whether “Slaughterhouses should be required to have their food safety and quality standards independently assessed by external Government inspectors”, 87% agreed. Also in this survey, in relation to fewer inspections, 74% of adults across all political persuasions in England and Wales, said they would be concerned about changes that would see fewer independent inspections by FSA vets and inspectors, and more inspections by private contractors & slaughterhouse themselves. We believe the survey suggests that the public do not trust the industry that produces the meat to be independent, but they do trust Government employed MHIs. Given the above, do Marks & Spencer believe the FSA are taking the best course of action to protect the public from foodborne illness, is by reducing independent meat hygiene inspection services, or do Marks & Spencer believe the FSA’s course of action is wrong? We would be happy to have your company’s view on this. We also wish wish to know if Marks & Spencer believe that they have a moral obligation to ensure their suppliers meet all hygiene regulations, and if so how you take pracitcal steps to achieve this? The public, as well as our small national charity, have some serious concerns which are demonstated by the petition above. This petition has reached over 101,000 votes of support to date. We look forward to your response. Yours faithfully, Steve Nash