Agenda item

The Community Environmental Health and Trading Standards Manager, Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) presented the Board with a detailed information report on Food Safety Interventions: Post Pandemic Recovery Programme.

Members were informed that, as previously reported, during the peak of the Covid pandemic the Food Standards Agency (FSA) had stopped the majority of food visits, although partners through WRS were required to monitor poor Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) businesses and to deal with complaints. WRS entered a two-year recovery phase in August 2021. Every local authority had a long list of overdue inspections, the total across the county being nearly 3,000. It was also reported that although WRS had mostly cleared the backlog there were still 300 interventions (including new premises) outstanding to meet the FRA recovery plan and that about half of those were high risk.

The Community Environmental Health and Trading Standards Manager detailed to Members that they no longer base their food intervention programmes solely on the arbitrary inspection dates set in the national Food Law Code of Practice.  Instead, WRS were proactive in recording and considering intelligence through tactical assessment and tasking programmes. This opened up many options including sectoral approaches (e.g., geographical, new premises, ethnics, bakeries, small retail) and specific projects (e.g., sampling, FHRS sticker checks, arising from complaints). This was an approach that FSA was considering as a change in policy direction after witnessing its effectiveness.

Members’ attention was drawn to the tables as detailed on page 212 and 213 of the main agenda report. Members were informed that businesses were maintaining a very high compliance rating of 98% by achieving a 3-5 FSA rating. The Community Environmental Health and Trading Standards Manager attributed this success to the commitment of WRS to prioritise the support of businesses to be compliant and successful.

At the request of the Chairman, the Community Environmental Health and Trading Standards Manager, WRS, detailed to Members the “Triple 5 award“ that WRS had announced recently to supplement the Food Hygiene Ratings, as a means of recognising businesses achieving a consistently good Level 5 Food Hygiene rating, saying that this was something for businesses to strive for, and that it could take up to six years to achieve this accolade, depending on the risk rating for the premise.

Members enquired about the criteria for a premises to receive a 0 rating. Officers replied that the rating looks at the inherent risk that the business poses to the public and examines a number of factors including, high risk food handling, pest control, building state of repair and the confidence in the management. For a 0 rating there needed to be a serious risk to the public, improvement notices would likely be served and, in the worst cases the premises may be forced to close. Officers further clarified that some businesses chose to give up after receiving a particularly bad rating, particularly if the work required outweighed their ability to make changes to the premises and the operation.

RESOLVED that the Information Report – Food Safety Interventions: Post Pandemic Recovery Programme, be noted, and that Members use the contents of the report in their own reporting back to their respective partner authority.