News
March 5, 2015
Three Members Appointed to the Board of Quality Meat Scotland
The Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and Environment today announced the
appointment of Jock Gibson, Scott Henderson and Katherine Rowell to be Members
of the Board of Quality Meat Scotland (QMS).
Jock Gibson runs his family Butchers Macbeth’s in Forres concentrating on
marketing and promotion, particularly for the mail order business. He is customer
facing and passionate about the butchery sector and is also involved in the family
beef hill farm where they breed Highland, Shorthorn and Aberdeen Angus cross
cattle.
Scott Henderson graduated with an Agriculture degree in 1975, and since then has
worked on the family farm on the outskirts of Dumfries. He has built up the business
with his brother and they now run a herd of 450 beef cows and a 450 ewe flock with
the help of their two sons. Their main enterprise however is finishing around 1800
cattle annually. Scott has been a Member of the QMS Cattle and Sheep Standards
Committee and served as Chair of the Scottish Beef Association. He was also a
Member of the Beef 2020 group and the Weather aid panel in 2013.
Katherine Rowell is a beef and sheep farmer from an upland LFA farm in
Peebleshire which runs 75 suckler cows, 430 mule ewes and 350 blackface ewes.
She is a qualified vet and worked in a mixed practice in the North of England for
eight years before returning home to take over the family farm. She and her
husband have been Monitor Farmers for the last two years and she has been
involved in helping at her children’s schools and on other farm visits with the Royal
Highland Education Trust. She is incoming President of Peebleshire Agricultural
Society and is also on the local Common Riding Committee and runs a Girl Guide
Unit in Peebles.
Appointments
The appointments will be for four years and will run from April 1, 2015 to
March 31, 2019.
The appointments are part-time and attract remuneration of £160.49 per day for a
time commitment of 15 days per year.
None of the new appointees hold any other Ministerial Appointments.
The appointments are regulated by the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public
Life in Scotland.
Political Activity
All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the
selection process. However, in accordance with the original Nolan
recommendations, there is a requirement for appointees’ political activity within the
last five years (if there is any to be declared) to be made public.
None of the appointees have undertaken any political activity within the last
five years.
Quality Meat Scotland
QMS is the body responsible for the development, marketing and promotion of the
Scottish red meat industry. Established in 2000 as a not for profit company limited
by guarantee, QMS became a Non Departmental Public Body in April 2008,
accountable to Scottish Ministers and established by the Quality Meat Scotland
Order 2008.
Scotland’s beef, lamb and pork industries make an important contribution to the
country’s rural economy contributing over £2bn to the annual GDP of Scotland and
directly employing approximately 26,000 people in the farming, agricultural supply
and processing sectors.
QMS is funded through a statutory levy of Scottish producers and slaughterers. In
the year to 31 March 2014, the turnover of QMS was just over £7m of which the levy
contributed £4m.