John Whitehead appointed new interim chairman of Seafish

Speaking about his new role, Mr Whitehead said: "After many years of association with Seafish as its deputy chair, I am delighted to step up to my new role. I would like to thank Charles Howeson for all that he has achieved during his time as chair. "I am assuming the interim chair of Seafish at a challenging time, when we are appealing against a Court of Appeal judgement that has affected more than half of our annual income. However, I am confident that we have the continuing support of government as we face the challenge of our appeal to the Supreme Court." "More importantly, we are working on a fully-effective plan to improve our service to industry over the next three years and focus hard on delivering value for money against industry investment in us." John Rutherford, chief executive of Seafish, said: "I join John Whitehead in thanking Charles Howeson for his distinguished contribution to our industry over the last three years. There could be no better candidate to replace Charles than John, who has long experience of the food industry and has already served as our deputy chairman since 2002."