Agenda item

To consider the monitoring report on the delivery of Service Plans for Food Law Enforcement and Health and Safety Regulation for Quarter 4.

With the assistance of a report by the Environmental Health Service Manager (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) the Committee received and noted an update on progress made against the delivery of work on the Council’s Food Law and Health and Safety Service Plans during the fourth quarter of 2023/24.

With regards to the Food Law Enforcement Plan, the Committee were advised that the main focus continued to be the inspection programme. With this in mind, Members were advised that 264 food hygiene inspections had been carried out during Quarter 4, which gave a total of 768 inspections for the year 2023-24 which was in excess of the level predicted. Members also noted that there had been 78 new business registrations which was slightly less than previous quarters but reflected the continuing flux of food businesses.

Progress against the inspection of premises categorised under the Alternative Enforcement Strategy remained at Red, however the Committee were pleased to note that additional temporary resources had been secured to bring those businesses back into the inspection programme. Members were reminded that Category E businesses were those deemed the lowest risk within the District.

The Committee were informed that there had been nine compliance checks undertaken within the quarter, at those premises where food hygiene inspections had identified issues that required attention. The level of activity had been slightly higher than predicted for the year which reflected the fact that some of the businesses had not been inspected for 4 years.

Members also noted that requests for export certificates had been lower than anticipated and predicted income had been adjusted accordingly. However, requests for rescores continued to be higher than anticipated and Members suggested that this was a positive reflection on the engagement that the team were undertaking.

The Committee were also informed that the Authority had continued to take part in the sampling activities offered by the UK Health Security Agency. The topics had been ‘Ready to Eat Salad and salad components from Retail and Catering’ and ‘Cooked Ready to Eat Sliced or Cut Meat from retail and catering premises’.

It was also reported that the level of activity with regard to infectious disease control had increased slightly due to the UK Health Security Agency restarting notifications of certain confirmed food and waterborne gastrointestinal pathogens. There had been approximately 10 cases within the current year.

With regards to Health and Safety activity within the quarter, it was noted that the majority of work undertaken was reactive. There were 16 accidents reported, of which 5 were investigated and Members were reminded that the selection of accidents for investigation was based on the risk-based criteria set out by the Health and Safety Executive. There were 26 other service requests responded to, the majority of which were licensing consultations, and 11 skin piercing registrations were processed within the quarter.

Having congratulated the Environmental Health Team for getting the delivery of work within the approved plans back on target following the difficulties experienced in Covid, the Committee noted the contents of the report.