FSA appoints new chief operating officer

30-Jan-2015 - Last updated on 30-Jan-2015 at 09:55 GMT

Jason Feeney has taken over as chief operating officer at the FSA

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has appointed Jason Feeney as its new chief operating officer.

Feeney replaced Andrew Rhodes who left the FSA to take on Feeney’s role as director of the Department of Workplace Pensions (DWP).

Rhodes, who joined the FSA in 2010, is also a non-executive director of the Royal Air Force.

Feeney had been the strategy director at DWP for the past seven years.

He is undertaking an “extensive induction programme”, including meeting key stakeholders and many FSA teams over the next few weeks, FSA chief executive Catherine Brown said.

‘Good timing’

Brown added: “It has been good timing that Feeney has joined as our exercise programme gets fully underway and [he] was able to participate in the recent executive team workshop on decision making during incidents.”

Brown revealed at the FSA’s board meeting on January 28 that she was currently reviewing evidence on listeria and anti-microbial resistance in the food chain to decide how big a focus they should be for the board.

Campylobacter and welfare enforcement would continue to be a priority for the FSA, she added.