Introduction to AHDB
The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) is a Non-Departmental Public Body
funded by the agriculture and horticulture industries through statutory levies.
It was established under the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board Order 2008 and became operational on 1 April 2008. It serves the six sectors of:
Statutory Purpose :
AHDB’s statutory purpose is defined in the AHDB Order 2008 as:
- increasing efficiency or productivity in the industry;
- improving marketing in the industry;
- improving or developing services that the industry provides or could provide to the community;
- improving the ways in which the industry contributes to sustainable development.
AHDB philosophy:
AHDB is one organisation and levy payers are at the heart of what it does. In implementing this philosophy the AHDB Board takes a sector-specific approach believing that by operating with divisions focused on each commodity sector, each with their own brand identity, and each with sector boards made up of levy payers and other stakeholders, makes it best placed to identify the sector priorities and devise and recommend appropriate strategies to meet those priorities.
Mission:
To provide to the agriculture and horticulture sectors cost-effective, relevant services, which support the sectors long-term sustainability.
Corporate Plan:
Each year AHDB publishes a rolling three year Corporate Plan. It includes the strategies, activity plans, and targets proposed by our six sector boards and also the levy rates required to deliver these plans.
Funding:
AHDB is funded by a statutory levy (a parafiscal tax) paid by producers, growers and processors and AHDB is responsible for the collection of all levies. Levies raised from each sector are ring-fenced to ensure they can only be used to the benefit of the sectors from which they were raised. The responsibility for setting and delivering the strategies to deploy the levy income is delegated to six AHDB sector boards which are comprised of levy payers and other stakeholders from each sector.
Structure:
In order to deliver effective sector focus AHDB is organised divisionally with six divisions representing the commodity sectors covered by its statutory remit, these divisions are supported by some core shared service divisions which are run centrally (eg finance). Each division is headed by a director who sits on the Senior Executive Team (SET), which is responsible for the implementation of the Corporate Plan. The SET is headed by the Chief Executive of AHDB and also contains each of the functional heads/directors (see diagram).
All staff are employed by AHDB with some in specific sector teams and others servicing more than one sector from shared services such as finance, HR and market intelligence. Sector specific activity is delivered under the established divisional brands of BPEX, DairyCo, EBLEX, HDC, HGCA and Potato Council.
Each sector division has a sector board comprised of levy payers and other stakeholders from the sector. Each sector board has delegated functions from AHDB to develop the most appropriate strategies to meet the challenges of the sector; to ensure the relevant levy rate is recommended in order to provide adequate funding for the required work; to monitor strategy implementation; and to approve remedies where performance deviates from plan. The sector board members are appointed by AHDB.
The main AHDB Board consists of the six chairs of the sector boards and four independent directors (including the chairman). The main AHDB Board members are appointed by the Secretary of State for Defra acting with the approval of the National Assembly for Wales, the Scottish Ministers and the relevant Northern Ireland department.
Commercial subsidiaries:
There are also a number of commercial subsidiaries within the AHDB group, the largest of which is Meat & Livestock Commercial Services Ltd (MLCSL) a wholly owned subsidiary of AHDB. MLCS Ltd is a separate company limited by guarantee supplying services to the meat and livestock sectors. All its costs are fully accounted for within the company and it returns profits to AHDB to supplement levy funds.
Income:
Collectively, taking both the levy-funded and commercial operations plus grants, AHDB has an income in excess of £50 million and employs some 450 people (310 of these are levy-funded posts). More detailed income and budgetting information is contained in the back of the Corporate Plan.
Change programme:
There is an extensive change programme being implemented across AHDB which has restructured and relocated operations onto a single site at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire during 2009, and will see it move into new purpose built offices at Stoneleigh Park during early 2011.
Audit and Governance:
The AHDB levy income comes under Treasury rules for the governance of public money. The National Audit Office (NAO) is responsible for the external auditing of the AHDB accounts and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) acts as AHDB’s ‘sponsor’ Government department. The AHDB Accounting Officer is accountable to Defra Ministers and devolved administrations on the appropriate use of levy funds and corporate governance standards applicable to public bodies. A Management Statement and Financial Memorandum sets out the broad framework within which AHDB and Defra are required to operate in their relationship:
Procurement:
AHDB is firmly committed to openness, fairness and transparency in selecting all of its suppliers of goods and services. It must do this as a matter of law under the Public Contracts Regulations 2006, and this approach will also enable us to develop a ‘most economically advantageous’ supply system and maximise our use of levy funds.
To this end, the AHDB website includes a procurement area (see left-hand menu bar) that lists all current procurements and provides links to enable any potential supplier to establish whether it wants to participate and how to do so.
AHDB has Standard Terms and Conditions that apply to all its contracts (or agreements) for the purchase of Goods and Services. These may be updated at any time by publication on this website and contracts are made applying the version current at the time of contracting. Suppliers are responsible for keeping themselves aware of changes. The current version applies from 12 April 2010. Previous versions can be obtained on request to the Legal Adviser at legal@ahdb.org.uk
Openness:
The Board of AHDB embraces the principles of openness and is committed to publishing information on this website about its board meetings, its corporate plan and its annual performance. It has developed a Publications Scheme as part of its compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (2000) and this sign-posts people to a wide range of information published by AHDB and its sector organisations.