To consider the monitoring report on the delivery of the Food Law Enforcement Plan and the Health and Safety Service Plan for the period 1st April to 31 December 2017.
Contact:S Walford 388002
Minutes:
With the assistance of a report by the Operational Manager (Business) (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) the Committee received an update on progress against the delivery of work in the Council’s Food Law Enforcement and Health and Safety Service Plans during the period 1st April to 31st December 2017.
In presenting progress against the Food Law Enforcement Service Plan, Member’s attention was drawn to the comparison of recorded activity against predicted activity in each of the programmed work service areas. Members were advised that there were currently 170 outstanding programmed food hygiene inspections to category A-D premises required before the end of March 2018. This was as a result of a vacancy within the team and a risk based approach was being adopted to address this issue.. Whilst the alternative enforcement strategy was currently classified as amber this was not currently of concern as it related to low risk premises which will be picked up in the fourth quarter of the year.
In terms of the unplanned (reactive) work (Appendix 2 to the report), Members were advised that the number of complaints and service requests was below target and that there had been no requirement in the year to-date for food, water and environmental samples to be taken.
The Committee were advised that Primary Authority work continued to be undertaken with Cambridgeshire Catering Services and an update on the progress which was being made with the ‘Better Business for All’ initiative and the implementation of the ‘Healthier Options programme’ within the District was provided. It was reported that the Food Standards Agency is continuing to develop their new strategic plan for delivering food safety and standards in the UK.
With regards to the delivery of the Health and Safety Plan for 2017/18, Members were advised that all activities had a progress status of ‘Green’ or ‘Amber’. Resources continued to be channelled into the investigation and research around the recent work place death reported at Hammerton zoo.
In reviewing the performance information within the report, the Committee discussed the number of outstanding inspections for category A-D premises. Member’s attention was drawn to the numbers in each category which were set out in Figure 1 in the report, these included the number of new premises within the District which were yet to receive a rating. It was envisaged that all category A and B premises would have received inspections by the end of the financial year and that the majority of category C premises would also have been completed. The Committee were assured that there were plans to fill both the ongoing vacancy within the Business Team and a further vacancy which was expected imminently. It was hoped that this would improve targets and service delivery.
In terms of the effect that the ongoing vacancy had had on performance levels, Members acknowledged that it was difficult to establish or monitor the specific impact of this. However it was reported there had not been any increase in the numbers of complaints received by the service and current enforcement activity was currently low with businesses generally compliant, which was a good indication that standards were not falling.
Finally Members discussed the frequency with which monitoring reports were presented to Committee. Whilst it was recognised that should these only be prepared on an annual basis it may save officer time, having regard to the ongoing situation with vacancies within the team it was agreed that monitoring reports should continue to be presented the Licensing and Protection Committee on a quarterly basis at this stage.
Whereupon, it was
RESOLVED
that progress on the delivery of the two Service Plans for the period 1st April to 31st December 2017 be noted.
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