Agenda item

To consider the Food Standards Agency audit findings and the Council’s subsequent action plan. 

43.1          The report of the Principal Environmental Health Officer, circulated at Pages No. 76-103, summarised the key findings of the food standards agency audit and outlined the actions that would be taken by the Community Services Team to address the Food Standards Agency requirements.  Members were asked to consider the audit report, at Appendix 1 to the report, and the action plan as set out at Appendix 2 to the report.

43.2          The Committee was advised that the Food Standards Agency undertook periodic audits of local authorities to determine performance against the framework agreement and the Food Law Code of Practice. In October 2019, the Agency had undertaken an audit of the Council’s performance with respect to approved food establishments – those that required specific approval from the Council in order to place their products on the market and display a unique identification mark which was issued by the Council – those establishments were often high risk and complex and the inspecting Officers had to demonstrate stringent requirements in terms of competence and experience. The Council currently had eight approved premises including a large dairy, a meat products manufacturer and an international shellfish exporter. It was understood that there had been a significant delay between the date of the audit and the presentation of the current report; however, this was due to the fact that the final report was not received from the Food Standards Agency until 16 January 2020 and there had then followed a number of events including flooding and the COVID-19 outbreak which had hampered the ability of the team to present the report at an earlier opportunity.

43.3          The positive observations from the audit included the development of a service plan which followed the guidance in the framework agreement; the development and implementation of an Officer competency matrix system in accordance with the Code of Practice; the development and implementation of locally documented procedures for approval of establishments which followed the Code of Practice; completion by Officers of the required hours of continuous professional development; establishment of file checks that appropriate interventions had been conducted in accordance with relevant guidance; investigation and appropriate follow-up of a complaint against an approved establishment; formal enforcement action being taken against an approved establishment; and food premises file records being accurate, easily retrievable and a representation of good practice. Areas for improvement were also identified and included a recommendation that the service plan should include a comparison of the resources required to deliver the plan against the resources available and identify any resulting shortfall; the Scheme of Delegation must provide senior Officers with the power to sign-off the annual food service plan; Officers authorisations should specify necessary restrictions to reflect Officers’ training, qualifications and experience; a documented procedure should be developed and implemented to ensure the food database was accurate, reliable and up to date; the compliance of establishments and their systems should be assessed to the legally prescribed standards and microbiological testing should be carried out in accordance with Regulation (EC) 2073/2005; and the Council should update its internal monitoring procedures to consider the full range of food enforcement activities carried out and develop a risk-based internal monitoring approach.

43.4          In response to a Member’s query about the length of time between inspections and the time taken for the report to get to the Council, the Principal Environmental Health Officer explained that, generally, audits were undertaken once every five years depending on the submitted performance figures; authorities which were behind in their inspections were prioritised for audit. In terms of microbiological testing, businesses were still operating and there were no concerns about public health as Officers were happy with their hygiene and structure. No inspections had been undertaken between March and September but since then all had returned satisfactory samples which was good news. In terms of receipt of the audit report, the Head of Community Services confirmed that it was not unusual for the Food Standards Agency to take three months to produce its report and then, following that, the current meeting was the first opportunity Officers had to update Members given the workloads identified in terms of flooding and the COVID-19 Pandemic. A revised set of targets for the action plan would be agreed with the Head of Community Services and relayed to the Food Standards Agency and, in addition, the Head of Corporate Services advised that when the Internal Audit team was back up and running this would be built into the audit programme and reported through Committee.

43.5          The Chair recognised that the areas for improvement were fairly minor and in general the report demonstrated a good position statement. Accordingly, it was

                 RESOLVED           That the audit report provided by the Food Standards Agency,                             as set out at Appendix 1, and the Council’s action plan,                                                attached at Appendix 2, be NOTED.