Wine Standards Board Merges With The Fsa (Food Standards Agency)

The Food Standards Agency announced 3 July 2006 that the Wine Standards Board (WSB), the non-governmental body responsible for wine making practices, the labelling of wine and the UK vineyard register, merged with the Agency on 1 July 2006. This merger involved the transfer of 10 WSB staff to the Agency and will result in the FSA taking over responsibility for enforcing the EU wine regime in the UK. This merger was one of the key recommendations of the Hampton Review published in March 2005, which aimed to simplify enforcement activity in England and reduce the number of enforcement bodies.