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 2018 to 31st January 2019.
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 2018 to 31st January 2019.
With regards to the Food Law Enforcement Service Plan, the Committee’s attention was drawn to the detailed information set out in Appendices 1 and 2 of the report – progress against the programmed and reactive activity.
In terms of programmed activity (Appendix 1), the Committee noted that inspections of premises within the risk based programme were behind schedule as a consequence of vacancies within the business team during the course of the year. However a plan to address this before the end of March 2019 had now been put in place. The Committee were also informed that inspections of new food businesses had also been higher than expected owing to an increase in the number of new business registrations – an area which continued to be unpredictable.
The Committee were advised that the number of proactive visits had been higher than expected during the course of the year and Members were advised that this was a consequence of an increase in complaints and service requests over the summer period which had now reduced. An update on completed and pending prosecutions was also provided.
With regards to food safety and public health promotion, Members were pleased to note that food hygiene training courses continued to be delivered with a very high success rate. A newsletter on acrylamide had been published and circulated and the Business Support Team is continuing to the enhanced registration of businesses work stream run by the Food Standards Agency.
In terms of unplanned reactive work undertaken by the Service (Appendix 2), Members noted that progress against predicted activity was on target in all areas. There had been one food alert for action from the Food Safety Agency during by period regarding the sale of sprouting seeds for human consumption.
The Committee were advised that the Food Standards Agency were continuing to refine their Regulation our Futures programme to modernise the way in which food businesses are regulated and were developing a training programme on imported food controls in preparation for the UK leaving the EU. Members were also pleased to note that the Better Business for All programme had developed with local authorities in the area and work had commenced to develop and draw up a web-based regulatory advice brochure.
The Committee went on to discuss the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme and it was reported that the Government had not yet passed the necessary legislation to require it to be mandatory for local food businesses to display their ratings. Members were also informed of the action which could be taken by the Authority in the event of a local business receiving a low score.
Turning to progress which had been made against the delivery of the Health and Safety Plan, the Committee noted the significant rise in the number of Accident and dangerous occurrence investigations compared to the numbers of those predicted. Having discussed the possible causes of this, it was agreed that further information should be included within the next monitoring report.
The Committee were informed that the Coroner’s Inquest into the death at Hammerton Zoo had been scheduled for July 2019 which required ongoing commitment from officers. The details of recent issues which had been identified as “Matters of Evident Concern” were also provided to Committee Members.
Whereupon and having concluded their discussion on this item, it was
RESOLVED
that progress on the delivery of the Service Plans for the period 1st April 2018 to 31st January 2019 be noted.
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