Issue - meetings

The Housing and Enforcement Manager introduced the Food and Health and Safety Work Plan for 2019/20.

The following points were highlighted:

·         WLDC had responsibility for food safety and hygiene;

·         Last year there had been an audit across food safety and environmental protection which received ‘limited assurance’.  There had been a number of resource and staffing issues.  The audit identified those issues and allowed actions to be put in place;

·         In the summer of 2019 there would be a new member of staff available for food inspections;

·         Through Progress and Delivery reports there had been additional information available on food safety performance;

Following questions from Members, further information was provided:

·         There had been no random food sampling taking place.  Sampling was where, following an inspection of premises, a random sample of food was taken and sent to a laboratory.  When officers visit premises with poor standards it was hoped to make this common practice;

·         Benchmarking of other authorities suggested that there had been an average of 56 samples over the course of a year collected by Local Authorities;

·         The risk of not sampling was not high; however if this wasn’t standard practice there was a risk of professional standards not being maintained;

·         The aim would be to increase the level of sampling at WLDC;

·         An abortive inspection would be where, for example, an owner was away during a planned visit.  It could also be where there was no access to premises;

·         Food inspections were a statutory obligation for WLDC set by the Food Standards Agency (FSA).  The FSA set out the frequency of inspections; category A would be every 6 months, whereas a lower risk inspection could be every 36 months.  No additional financial burden was received as a result of these inspections, however some parts of the service could be charged for.

A re-inspection would be subject to a fee.  The first year where re-visits were charged for was 2018, and this produced around £3,000 in income.  This year, £5,000 was scheduled for income; this did not cover the cost of food safety, but did help to offset some other costs.

RESOLVED to approve the Food and Health and Safety Work Plan 2019/20.