Transport, Environment and

Planning Directorate

Food Service Plan 2024/2025

Drawn up in accordance with the
Food Standard Agency’s Framework Agreement

FOREWORD

Under the statutory Food Law Code of Practice, City of York Council (the Council) is required to produce an annual service plan that covers their various food functions.

The Public Protection team carry out many of the Council’s regulatory functions particularly those relating to Environmental Health, Trading Standards and Licensing and are responsible for the all the Council’s duties in relation to food and feed. For clarity, this includes (i) food hygiene matters i.e. that food is safe to eat, (ii) food standards matters i.e. that food is what it says it is and (iii) similar provisions in relation to animal feed.

This service plan sets out our aims and objectives for 2024/2025 and also looks at what demands are placed on the team and what resources are available to meet those demands. It also reviews our performance over the last year. To this end, any variance between the 2023/2024 planned and actual performance is highlighted as well as any service improvements.

This plan illustrates the effective use of existing resources to target the highest risk businesses, while maintaining a balanced enforcement mix.

The current system of ensuring food hygiene and standards has its roots in the Food Law Code of Practice introduced in 1990. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is currently reviewing the way this activity is delivered, and there may be changes to the role Local Authorities play in the coming years.

1. SERVICE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

1.1 Aims and objectives

The Council strives to achieve the following in its various food related functions: -

· To approve and register food/feed premises as prescribed by government;

· To operate a comprehensive regime of interventions, for example inspections, sampling, advice and other approaches, including formal enforcement action, to ensure that food and animal feed is safe and is what it says it is;

· To rate food hygiene within businesses in accordance with the FSA’s Food Hygiene Rating Scheme;

· To provide support, assistance, training and advice to local businesses, thereby enabling them to produce and market products that comply with legal requirements and best practice. In the process of this support, help businesses survive the cost of living crisis and those which want to grow, grow. There may be a charge for these services;

· To act as a Primary Authority and Originating Authority, and deal with enquiries referred to us by other agencies;

· To investigate complaints about the labelling, composition, safety and fitness of food, feeding stuffs and the operation of food premises;

· To take prompt and effective action in response to food hazard warnings and other threats to food safety in York;

· To investigate cases of communicable disease notified to the Authority;

· To share intelligence obtained in the course of our work with the police and other law enforcement agencies to help wider social issues such as tackling modern slavery and disrupting organised crime gangs.

· Through all of the above, ensure the health and well-being of residents and visitors to the city.

1.2 Links to corporate objectives and plans.

The City of Yorks Council Plan 2023-2027^{^[1]} sets out the council’s vision:

‘Over the next 4 years, we will establish the conditions that would make the city of York a healthier, fairer, more affordable, more sustainable and more accessible place, where everyone feels valued, creating more regional opportunities to help today’s residents and benefit future generations’

There are seven priorities

· priority a) Health and wellbeing: A health generating city, for children and adults

· priority b) Education and skills: High quality skills and learning for all

· priority c) Economy and good employment: A fair, thriving, green economy for all

· priority d) Transport: Sustainable accessible transport for all

· priority e) Housing: Increasing the supply of affordable housing

· priority f) Sustainability: Cutting carbon, enhancing the environment for our future

priority g) How the council operates: A customer focused organisation

1. Furthermore, the council plan lays out the ‘Four Core Commitments’ which underpin how we do things.

- Equalities and Human Rights: We will create opportunities for all, providing equal opportunity and balancing the human rights of everyone. We will stand up to hate and work hard to champion our communities.

- Affordability: We will find new ways so everyone who lives here benefits from the success of the city, targeting our support at those who need it most, supporting communities to build on their own strengths and those of the people around them.

- Climate: We know the race to net zero is more urgent than ever and we will understand the impact our actions have on the environment. We will prepare for the future, adapting our city to extreme climate events and enhancing our environment for future generations to enjoy.

- Health: We will improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities, taking a ‘Health in All Policies’ approach, with good education, jobs, travel, housing, better access to health and social care services and environmental sustainability. We will achieve better outcomes by targeting areas of deprivation, aiming to level opportunity across the city.

1.3 Public Protection managers review the demands across the whole service annually and refresh a Public Protection service plan which describes all the activities we will undertake during the course of the year to support the priorities listed in the Council plan. This includes delivering this specific food service plan to ensure that food businesses are meeting their legal obligations.

2. BACKGROUND

2.1 Profile of the council

City of York Council is a unitary authority, with a population of

202,800 (according to the 2021 census) and an area of 27,250 hectares. The majority of the electorate are located in the urban city area, with the remainder resident in the outlying towns and villages.

The area is predominantly urban, covering the historic city with the associated tourism, hospitality and catering activities. Studies show that food and drink is the largest area of spend for tourists.

2.2 Organisational structure

The following diagram shows how those responsible for managing and delivering food and animal feed activity fit into the Council’s overall structure and also the political structure.

Other specialist support services include:-

· Public Analyst services for food are provided under contract by ‘The Public Analyst Service Ltd’. Feed samples are analysed under the North Yorkshire Council contract for animal health and feed.

· Microbiological food examination is carried out under a service level agreement with the United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) laboratory service.

2.3 Scope of the food and feed service

The Public Protection team has responsibility for all the council’s food hygiene, food standards and animal feed activities (including ‘primary production’ activities).

The structure charts above, show that in relation to food matters the team comprises of both environmental health and trading standards professionals, in addition to technical support staff. Some officers have dual qualifications and are therefore able to deal with both food hygiene and food standards matters. We have additional support from specialist food safety contractors to deliver routine inspections and North Yorkshire Council delivers our animal feed activity under a contract for services.

On a day-to-day basis, officers are involved in the following specific activities:

· A programme of interventions focusing on food and feeding stuffs. This primarily consists of inspections for food safety matters conducted in accordance with a risk assessment (as described in the Food Code of Practice).

· ‘Scoring businesses’ after an intervention in accordance with the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme. We also deal with appeals and re-score visits (a charge is made for businesses wishing to be re-scored on a ‘cost recovery’ basis).

· Investigation of complaints from consumers and reacting to intelligence from other sources.

· Investigation of food poisoning and infectious disease notifications.

· Promotion and education/advice for businesses and the public. For example, we provide pre-food hygiene rating inspections for businesses, on a cost recovery basis, to help raise standards locally.

· Sampling of food and animal feed.

· Sharing intelligence obtained in the course of our work with the police and other enforcement agencies to help tackle wider social issues including modern slavery and organised criminal activity.

· Signposting growing businesses to the help available through the Local Growth Hubs.

Our Environmental Health Officers also have responsibility for Health and Safety duties in certain business premises (those outside of the scope of the Health and Safety Executive). They also occasionally assist in other areas of Public Protection work including support with trading standards prosecutions – in particular disclosure of unused material.

2.4 Demands on the food team

The Council’s area contains a mix of manufacturing, retail and catering premises; hospitality and catering are the dominant sectors. There is a large international confectionery manufacturer, a district hospital, various large academic institutions and a racecourse. We have a relatively small number of farms.

Table 1 - Breakdown of food premises by FSA category (from Civica records).

FSA Category	Number on1 April 2023
FSA Primary Producer	10
Manufacturer & Packer	44
Importer/Exporter	3
Distributor/Transporter	20
Retailers Other	80
Restaurants/Cafe/Canteen	543
Supermarket/Hypermarket	64
Small Retailer	268
Hotel/Guesthouse	118
Pub/Club	209
Takeaway	213
Caring Establishment	122
School/College	91
Mobile Food Unit	61
Restaurant/Caterers - Other	246
Total	2092

The number of food premises fluctuates year on year, but is typically around the 2,000 mark. As can be seen, the profile of food premises in York is heavily biased towards restaurants and caterers, which is a reflection of the city’s status as a major tourist destination.

As a result of the current economic situation we have seen an increased turnover of business ownership in the food sector, and anticipate that this will continue in the year ahead. This ‘business churn’ places a strain on the team’s resources due to the requirement to undertake inspections of these new premises upon opening.

Under the product specific Regulation (EC) 853/2004, there are four premises that are currently ‘approved’ by the food team, these being two egg packing centres, one dairy processing plant and one fish processing plant.

The team works in accordance with the principles of the Primary Authority scheme, which is promoted by the Office of Product Safety and Standards (part of the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy or ‘BEIS’ as it is commonly referred to). We have developed Primary Authority Partnerships with a number of local businesses.

The service is primarily delivered from council offices at the Eco Depot, Hazel Court, York, but the majority of officers now work at home for around three days a week.

The council’s hours of operation for the general public are 08:30 -17:00, Monday to Friday. Given the number of restaurants and takeaways, a lot of our interventions, such as inspections, are conducted outside of these hours.

2.5 Regulatory Policy

The Public Protection team follow an enforcement policy which ensures we operate in accordance with the Regulators’ code. The formal enforcement action taken under the enforcement policy is reviewed by Members annually.

3. SERVICE DELIVERY

3.1 Interventions at Food and Feed Establishments

The term ‘intervention’ is used to cover the broad range of controls that we use when dealing with food businesses to verify compliance with food law. Interventions are classified as either ‘official controls’ or as ‘other interventions’. The following definitions are taken from the Code of Practice:

Interventions that are ‘official controls’ include:

· inspections;

· monitoring;

· surveillance;

· verification;

· audit; and

· sampling - where analysis/examination is required these are to be carried out by an Official Laboratory.

Other interventions, i.e. those which do not constitute official controls include:

· education, advice and coaching (including where businesses pay for this advice); and

· information and intelligence gathering (this can include sampling for information gathering purposes, obtaining relevant information during visits for other reasons, internet research, telephone surveys, and self-assessment questionnaires).

All food premises are ‘risk rated’ to reflect the products they supply and the systems they have in place to ensure compliance. Almost all food businesses must receive an intervention within a defined period of time. In some cases the intervention must be an ‘official control’ (and in some cases only a certain kind of ‘official control’ e.g. an inspection). In other cases, generally lower risk businesses, this can be an ‘other intervention’ which is not an ‘official control’.

Examples of high-risk premises are places serving vulnerable people, and/or places serving high risk foods with short ‘use by’ dates and/or a poor record of compliance. Examples of low-risk premises (providing they have good systems in place and there is good confidence in management) are retailers selling pre-packed foods, pubs/clubs only serving drinks and bar snacks, sweet/chocolate shops and cake manufacturers amongst others.

3.2 Food Hygiene Interventions

Review of last year’s food hygiene intervention performance (2023/2024)

Following withdrawal of the Food Standards Agency Covid Recovery Plan on the 31^st March 2023, inspection frequencies contained within the Food Law Code of Practice were re-introduced.

The Food Law Code of Practice requires the following interventions.

all ‘A’ rated food businesses,
all ‘B’ rated food businesses,
all ‘C’ rated food businesses,
all ‘D’ rated food businesses (can alternate between official control and non-official control),
all newly registered food businesses, and
all ‘E’ rated premises can be subject to an alternative enforcement strategy.

Table 3.1 Food hygiene interventions from 01/04/23 to 31/03/24

High risk Low risk

Premises intervention risk rating	A	B	C	D	E	Unrated	New	Total
No. of interventions required by Food Law Code of Practice	31	78	179	546	1	208	164	1,207
No. of interventions required by Public Protection Plan	31	78	179	546	1	208	164	1,207
No. of interventions achieved	31	78	179	386	1	145	164	984
No. of premises where no intervention was achieved	0	0	0	160	0	63	0	223

The outstanding ‘D’ rated, and ‘unrated’ premises are those remaining uninspected from the FSA Covid recovery period. This backlog is being gradually cleared through inclusion in the routine inspection programme without recourse to additional resources.

Of the above inspections carried out 93% of the businesses received a broadly compliant food hygiene rating (Scores of 3, 4 or 5), and 76% received a food hygiene rating score of 5.

Across all businesses in York, including those not inspected this past year, 96.9% are rated as broadly compliant and 76.1% have received a food hygiene rating of 5.

Proposed Food Hygiene Intervention Plan (2024/2025)

In March 2023, due to the nationwide progress made by local authorities, the Food Standards Agency withdrew their ‘Covid Recovery Plan’. As the proposed new intervention programme has been delayed by the Food Standards Agency, local authorities were asked to revert to the existing Food Law Code of Practice to guide intervention planning.

The Food Law Code of Practice requires the following interventions.

· all ‘A’ rated food businesses,

· all ‘B’ rated food businesses,

· all ‘C’ rated food businesses,

· all ‘D’ rated food businesses (can alternate between official control and non-official control),

· all newly registered food businesses, and

· all ‘E’ rated premises can be subject to an alternative enforcement strategy.

Based on the above it is anticipated that the following interventions will be required this financial year, see table 3.2.

Table 3.2 Food hygiene interventions due: 1 April 2024 - 31 March 2025

High risk Low risk

Premises intervention

rating

Unrated*

Total

No. of premises officially requiring intervention

212

415

127

875

No. of interventions

Planned

24 (**48)

212

415

127

846 (870)

* This is the number of unrated premises at the start of the year. There will be more premises during the year as new businesses open etc.

** - Six-month inspection frequency for category A premises.

In addition, where intelligence or complaints are received about a business then public protection will consider carrying out an additional food intervention to ensure that food hygiene standards are maintained.

3.3 Food Standards Interventions

Review of last year’s food standards intervention performance (2023/2024)

Under normal circumstances Public Protection would inspect premises falling within the High ‘A’ premises intervention rating category and take an ‘intelligence led’ approach to food standards for those premises falling within the medium, low or unrated premises intervention rating categories, rather than following the regime specifically set out in the Food Law Code of Practice.

However, the FSA is currently introducing a new Food Standards Delivery Model which will provide a new schedule of inspection frequencies for food premises. Until the new system is introduced, Local Authorities are required to inspect all higher ‘A’ rated food standards businesses and identify any unrated or new food businesses which would be likely to be classed as ‘A’ rated businesses.

Table 3.3 below shows a summary of the performance for the period 2023/2024.

Table 3.3 Food standards interventions from 01/04/23 to 31/03/24

Premises intervention rating	High ‘A’ Risk	Medium ‘B’ Risk	Low ‘C’ Risk	Unrated	New	Total
No. of interventions required	14	0	0	75	96	185
No. of interventions achieved	14	167	22	31	96	330
No. of premises closed	0	0	0	0	0	0
No. of interventions not achieved	0	0	0	44	0	44

As can be seen Public Protection managed to inspect all the existing ‘A’ rated food standards premises.

Proposed Food Standards Intervention Plan (2024/2025)

The Food Standards Agency are in the process of launching a new Food Standards Delivery Model that local authorities will follow when intervention planning. It is currently anticipated that all local authorities will be adhering to this new delivery model by 1^st April 2025.

Until the point of transfer, local authorities should inspect all ‘A’ category premises and consider all new and unrated premises.

In relation to category ‘B’ and ‘C’ premises no interventions are required until the new delivery model is ready for implementation, unless intelligence or complaints are received about a business that indicates that there may be issues of concern. This is akin to the approach that we have been taking to Food Standards inspections for a number of years.

Based on the above it is anticipated that the following food standards interventions will be required this financial year (see table 3.5).

Table 3.5 Food standards interventions due: 1 April 2024 - 31 March 2025

Premises intervention

rating

High

‘A’

Risk *

Medium ‘B’
Risk

Low

‘C’
Risk

Unrated

New

Total

No. of interventions required in line with FSA guidance.

~ 100

158

No. of interventions planned in line with FSA guidance.

~100

158

For new businesses registering during the 2024/20225 year, each business will be assessed using a prioritisation questionnaire, and any identified as being likely to fall within a high or ‘A’ rating will receive a formal inspection as required.

Where intelligence or complaints are received about a business which falls within the ‘B’ or ‘C’ risk categories, then public protection will consider carrying out an additional food standards intervention.

In addition to the above our Environmental Health Officers will continue to give advice in relation to food allergens during the course of their food hygiene visits.

3.4 Feeding stuffs/primary production interventions 2023/2024

City of York Council has a total of 198 registered feed premises, as required by Regulation 183/2005, which are involved in the use, manufacture or marketing of feed.

In 2023/2024 a total of 5 programmed animal feed interventions were undertaken by North Yorkshire Council, under the animal health and feed contract, on behalf of City of York Council.

In 2024/2025 a total of 2 programmed animal feed interventions are due to be undertaken on behalf of City of York Council by North Yorkshire Council under the animal health and feed contract.

As well as proving their competence and ability to deliver the service in a customer focussed way, the supplier was asked to demonstrate the ways in which they could contribute towards the council commitment to becoming carbon neutral and help tackle some of the wider concerns around modern slavery and organised crime. Where appropriate we will incorporate primary production hygiene interventions to reduce the burden on farms.

3.5 Food and Feed Complaints

We investigate food and feeding stuffs complaints in accordance with procedures in our quality management system.

In 2023/2024 we received 62 complaints about the safety of food and 105 complaints about the hygiene of premises. We received a further 13 complaints about food standards. These figures are fairly consistent year-on-year, reflecting how busy the food sector is in York and the high awareness of food issues amongst our customers. We anticipate a similar number of complaints in the year ahead.

3.6 Food and feed sampling

The food safety team is primarily concerned with the microbiological safety of food but can also sample food to establish the nature and likely harm arising from foreign body contamination.

The sampling programme tends to focus on areas of past non-compliance, premises that are failing to meet minimum standards and emerging priorities such as cross contamination in connection with E.coli.

Each year the United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UHSA) undertakes microbiological analysis of the samples we take, most of which are done without charge under a credits system.

Our food standards samples look at the description, composition and labelling of food, to ensure that legal requirements are being met. Samples are normally targeted at areas where problems are regularly found, or where intelligence and/or complaints suggest there could be issues.

The team sample foods and feeding stuffs in accordance with national guidance. We participate in nationally co-ordinated sampling programmes, such as those organised by UKHSA, and also sample where local intelligence indicates a need (e.g. where poor food handling practices are observed).

Due to the many competing demands on the service, only one sample was taken during the 2023/2024 period.

3.7 Control and Investigation of Outbreaks and Food related infectious disease

The team investigate all food poisoning notifications and outbreaks of food borne disease in accordance with procedures agreed with the United Kingdom Health Security Agency and our local quality procedures.

In 2023/2024 the team received 56 formal notifications of infectious disease. It is usual to receive approximately 70 notifications per year.

3.8 Food/feeding stuffs safety incidents

We deal with all food alerts from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in accordance with the Food Law Code of Practice and our local quality management system. Notifications are received from the FSA by e-mail and appropriate action is taken in each case.

The reactive nature of these notifications makes it difficult to estimate the likely level of future activity. Although alerts can be issued by the FSA for information only, some require a formal response. A formal response might involve issuing a local press release or contacting multiple food businesses directly, which has resource implications.

3.9 Primary Authority Scheme

We are committed to following the principles of the Primary Authority scheme and have entered into Primary Authority agreements in relation to food with seven businesses.

3.10 Advice to businesses/customers

The team provide high levels of support and assistance to businesses operating or intending to operate in the City of York area.

We typically receive around 300 requests for business advice each year, in 2023/2024 we received 289 requests.

Advice is often requested by prospective businesses before they commence trading. We are seeing many new premises opening and new business proposals being considered. We anticipate dealing with elevated number of requests for advice in 2024/2025 as a result of the high levels of business churn currently being experienced.

We also receive a large number of requests for advice from businesses interested in improving their rating under the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme. We provide this service for a charge on a cost recovery basis using a Pre-Inspection Audit (PIA).

Last year 113 businesses took up this PIA service, an increase from the 82 undertaken the previous year.

Of the 113 businesses receiving a PIA last year, 72% received a food hygiene rating of 5 and 83% maintained or increased their rating. This demonstrates that these pre inspection advice visits do improve standards.

3.11 Liaison with other organisations

The team will ensure that it is operating in a manner that is consistent with both neighbouring local authorities and other agencies. Various methods will be used to facilitate this, including benchmarking, peer review and liaison with: -

North Yorkshire Food Liaison Group

Our regional food liaison group works under the wing of the North Yorkshire Chief

Environmental Health Officers Group. All eight former North Yorkshire local authorities are represented on both of these groups. Of particular relevance is the food safety quality management system (QMS) which the group maintains. Due to the importance of this group it has continued to operate following the formation of North Yorkshire Council.

Yorkshire and the Humber Trading Standards Group – Food and Feed

This group is formed by the Yorkshire and Humber Trading Standards Executive

Group and meets at least once a year to discuss food standards issues. They look at regional projects where intelligence indicates there are emerging issues, for example counterfeit alcohol or meat substitution.

United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA)

The UKHSA food laboratory, based at FERA near York, undertake microbiological

analysis of food samples on our behalf. Regular meetings are held to promote coordination and good sampling practice across the region.

North Yorkshire District Control of Infection Committee

This is a multi-disciplinary group of public health consultants, consultant microbiologists, environmental health officers, infection control nurses, general practitioners and associated professions. It meets on a quarterly basis to discuss infection control issues and set policies in relation to their investigation and control.

North Yorkshire Police Disruption Panel

The panel exists to share intelligence and undertake activities to disrupt organised

crime, including activities connected with food businesses.

Where the team receives a food related complaint that does not fall within its

enforcement remit or geographical enforcement area, it refers the person concerned

to the correct body or forwards the item of work to the relevant authority without delay.

3.12 Promotional and project work

The team continues to raise consumer and business awareness through press

releases, particularly following prosecutions.

4. RESOURCES

4.1 Financial allocation

The net Public Protection budget, for all environmental health, trading standards and licensing functions is £1.3m per annum.

4.2 Allocation of staff

As can be seen in the structure chart above, our food officers are shared across two distinct teams i.e., ‘Investigations and Compliance’ which carries out the bulk of our interventions and enforcement, and ‘Regulatory Support and Advice’ which provides business advice. The resources are however shared between the two teams as demand requires it.

Full time officers spend approximately 1,200 hours per annum on front line related tasks. Of this time, the majority of the team spend approximately 50% of their time on food related issues i.e. 600 hrs per year per FTE. The technical officer spends ~100% of their time on food.

Therefore, we have 3,660 hours of officer time to deliver the food service, and will be broken down as follows.

Task	Time (hours)
Lead officer role – performance monitoring, service planning, NY food group	120
Intervention programme (in house staff only)	750
Enforcement work (e.g. investigations/ prosecutions)	280
Food Hygiene Rating Scheme	60
Food/premises complaints, including business advice, alerts etc.	900
Infectious disease	120
Primary authority/income work	780
Project work	120
Management of food contractors	250
Sampling	150
Officer training	140
TOTAL TIME TO DELIVER SERVICE	3,660

In addition to the above resources there is a budget of £46,000 for contractor inspections which will purchase in the region of 700 inspections.

Animal Feed

Our animal feed/primary production inspections will be carried out on our behalf by competent officers at North Yorkshire Council.

Management

The above figures do not include Management time, which will be undertaken within existing resources.

4.3 Staff development plan

The Food Law Code of Practice requires that staff achieve at least 20 hours of food related Continuing Professional Development (CPD) each year.

Staff development needs are identified on an ongoing basis, through the team’s quality management system. We also hold annual Performance Development

Reviews with individual officers, where the training needs are considered. Identified training needs will be met by: -

· Training to achieve specific qualifications

· Attendance on technical seminars/courses

· In-house training on specific issues

· Cascade training by staff that have attended relevant courses

· Use of online training resources (e.g. FSA online content)

Training records show that officers achieve the required levels of CPD training required by the Food Law Code of Practice.

5. QUALITY ASSESSMENT

5.1 Quality assessment and internal monitoring

The food team operates within the North Yorkshire Food Liaison Group’s quality

management system (QMS).

The QMS includes a rigorous system of controlled documents that state the

minimum standards for our food enforcement activities. It includes internal

monitoring within the authority and is further enforced by inter-authority auditing.

The system ensures the delivery of high quality enforcement activity across the City

of York, which is consistent with North Yorkshire Council and is in accordance with good practice.

5.2 External monitoring

The Council’s activities are subject to periodic monitoring from the Food Standards Agency. The last monitoring visit took place in February 2022 in relation to Food Standards, whereby a plan of action put in place with regard to food standards work. This plan was completed and signed off as complete in March 2022.

In addition to monitoring visits, regular returns detailing the work of the food service are submitted to the Food Standards Agency in line with the Local Authority Enforcement Monitoring System.

6. ENFORCEMENT

6.1 Formal action

The following table 6.1 summarises the level and types of formal enforcement action taken in 2023/2024.

Generally, we believe that to be effective, the full range of enforcement options should be used, from informal letters offering advice, through to prosecutions where this course of action is considered appropriate.

Table 6.1 Summary of Public Protection Food Safety/Standards Enforcement 2023/2024

Type Of Action	Numbers Taken / Issued 2023/2024
Voluntary Closures	1
Seizure of detention of foods	1
Emergency Prohibition Notice	0
Prohibition Notices	0
Simple Caution	1
Hygiene Improvement Notice	6
Remedial Action/Detention Notices	0
Prosecutions Concluded	1
Prosecutions Pending	2
Written Warnings	809

7. SUMMARY

7.1 Summary of performance – including key variations from the service plan.

We carried out a food hygiene intervention for the vast majority of all the premises due an intervention in 2023-2024. We have also continued to take firm enforcement action against the poorest performing businesses with 1 business prosecuted for food safety matters.

7.2 Customer Satisfaction

Public Protection survey our business customers and members of the public, to ensure that we are providing a high quality, customer focused service.

In 2021/2022 our surveys found the following, as per table 7.1 below. A renewed satisfaction survey is to be undertaken in 2024.

Table 7.1 Summary of Public Protection Satisfaction Survey Results 2021/2022

Directorate Measure	2021/2022 Result	Target
% of businesses reporting contact with officers was helpful	100%	95%
% of businesses reporting that they were treated fairly	100%	90%
% of business reporting that the visit was useful	100%	95%
% customers satisfied with the overall level of service provided	100%	85%

7.3Areas of challenge and areas for improvement in 2024/2025

· Supporting businesses through the cost-of-living crisis. Advice will include signposting businesses to those offering grants and other forms of support to help businesses grow.

· Providing advice to increased numbers of new businesses as they open.

· Further improvements to intelligence gathering and sharing, particularly in relation to identifying victims of modern slavery and tackling organised crime.

· Undertake horizon scanning on food related issues.

· Increased public interest and scrutiny of the food hygiene inspections.

· Introduction of the new Food Standards Delivery Model.