Agenda item

To consider the draft Service Plan for Food Law Enforcement 2023-24

Consideration was given to a report by the Environmental Health Service Manager (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) to which was attached a draft Service Plan for Food Law Enforcement for 2023-24.

The Committee were reminded that the District Council has responsibility for most food safety and hygiene enforcement functions within the District. As such, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) requires every local authority to outline how it will fulfil its duty to deliver food controls in the form of a Service Plan, specifying how and at what level the official controls will be delivered. It also details the resources required to deliver it, together with a review of the previous year’s performance.

The Committee were advised that on 1st April 2023 there were 1740 food registered in Huntingdonshire, an increase of 39 businesses compared to the same date in 2022. Members were also reminded that businesses are inspected according to their rating category and throughout the last year the requirements of the Food Safety Recover Plan were followed. Now that this had finished, the aim of the Service was to work through the remaining backlog of Category D rated premises which did not form part of the Plan, some of which may not have been inspected for a period of 4 years due to the Covid 19 Pandemic There were approximately 342 overdue Category D premises which would form that work, together with 53 unrated premises which were due for an intervention in 2023-34. Quarterly monitoring reports would continue to be provided to the Licensing and Protection Committee in addition the Monthly Monitoring figure provided to Senior Leadership Team.

In terms of the proposed performance indicators which had been included within Appendix 1 of the draft Plan, Members were advised that these had now been broken down to indicate whether they were programmed, or initial inspections and to identify the number of aborted inspections which take place. Members were advised that the Alternative Enforcement Strategy remained as an indicator as it was intended that there would be progress in this area during the year. Several new indicators had also been included to identify where mentoring and business support visits had been undertaken, revisits to check compliance and requests for export certificates made etc.

Arising from the draft Service Plan, Councillor Bywater commented on the potential for there to be misunderstanding by members of the public surrounding some of the dates within the report. He also queried in relation to paragraph 2.4.5 whether the Authority had sufficient trained individuals to undertake some of the complex visits. In response to which it was explained that the Environmental Health Team comprised fully trained competent officers at the current time, who all fulfilled ongoing professional development requirements. However, consideration was currently being given to the best means of dealing with the 0.5FTE vacancy within the Team.

Whereupon, it was

RESOLVED

(a)  that the Service Plan for Food Law Enforcement 2023-24 be approved in accordance with the Council’s Constitution; and

(b)  that quarterly reports be requested to monitor progress against the Service Plan.