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The Cabinet Member with responsibility for Community Health introduced report ES/0078. The report was presented by the Head of Environmental Services and Port Health and it referred to the requirement for the Council to produce a Food and Health and Safety Service Plan in the format prescribed by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in its Framework Agreement on Local Authority Law Enforcement and as required by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), as set out in the National Local Authority Enforcement Code – Health & Safety at Work England, Scotland and Wales. It was further required that the Service Plan be submitted for member approval and that it be reviewed to identify the Council's performance against the Service Plan, any variance from the Plan and any areas for improvement in the service.
The Head of Environmental Services and Port Health advised that this year’s Service Plan included information on the Council's performance in meeting targets, as set out in the Service Plan for 2018/19, any variance in performance and recommended to Full Council that the Food and Health and Safety Service Plan for 2019/20 be approved. The Head of Environmental Services and Port Health, in summarising performance against key targets, advised the Committee of a small reduction in the percentage of food businesses which were broadly compliant with food safety requirements but, overall, the figure remained high, at 90%, and above the national average. He further stated that the number of food businesses with a rating of 0 or 1 under the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (requiring urgent or major improvement) had decreased and there had also been a small decrease in the number of premises rated 5 (very good). The Committee was advised that, given the overall high levels of compliance, the achievement of further and sustained improvement would be challenging and some fluctuations in performance were to be expected. The Committee noted the strong performance in Food Hygiene Interventions at 97%, compared to the national average of 87%. The increase in complaints about hygiene was also referenced and it was suggested that this was, possibly, because customers were more inclined to report rather than the standards of hygiene generally being poor. The Committee was referred to the reduced number of food samplings which had resulted primarily from staff issues; the Head of Environmental Services and Port Health said that, despite this, the delivery of continued good performance was a credit to his team.
With regard to the future, the Head of Environmental Services and Port Health advised that a trial of mobile devices by his staff would shortly commence; this would save Officer time and further aid efficiency of processes, for example, the generation of reports while on site inspections with immediate email to the proprietor. The Committee was informed that the Food Safety Agency's Register a Food Business digital service had been launched in September 2018. This captured registration data from food business operators and provided guidance to support such establishments to understand their responsibilities for safely produced, and correctly described, food.
With regard to Port Health Services, the Committee was informed that the Council's Port Health Team continued to liaise with central Government departments, the Food Safety Agency, DEFRA, the Port of Felixstowe, ferry operators and importers to plan for the consequences of a potential no-deal exit from the EU. Also, the Port Health Authority had worked with various Brexit-related steering groups and had sat on the project delivery group for the development of a new UK import/export declaration system. The Committee noted that it was anticipated that food consignments from the EU would continue to remain unchecked after Brexit but there would need to be checks of organic certification for food and fish catches. Lastly, the Committee was informed that the use of the Council's PHILLIS software had been further expanded with its use at Dover now underway.
The Chairman invited questions.
A member of the Committee asked if the Council was involved in checks on controls for food deliveries made by bicycle or taxis. The Head of Environmental Services and Port Health said it would be necessary to implement checks to ensure food was maintained at correct temperatures, risks of contamination were avoided and there was compliance with food hygiene requirements.
Another member of the Committee questioned if membership of the Safety Advisory Group (SAG) was compulsory and why there were differing approaches to the review of event applications to ensure public safety (as detailed in section 13 of the Service Plan). The Head of Environmental Services and Port Health replied that the SAG was a multi-agency advisory forum and attendance by event organisers could not be mandated. He added that it fell to individual agencies to take whatever action was considered necessary for a proposed event under their appropriate legislative powers; if the SAG had a concern it could invite event organisers to attend and provide them with specific advice. The member asked if an invited event organiser failed to attend whether the proposed event would then be stopped. The Head of Environmental Services and Port Health said this might occur if there was a public safety issue which one of the agencies felt was sufficiently serious to preclude the event continuing.
Another member of the Committee referred to those food premises which received a 0 or 1 rating (urgent or major improvement required) and asked if they were obliged to display this rating and if it was dated. The Head of Environmental Services and Port Health said food premises in England were not currently legally obliged to display their rating, however, the Food Safety Agency (FSA) intended to make this compulsory. He added that guidance was available on the Council's website which linked directly to the FSA's website; in brief, premises were required to remove an old sticker if its rating was altered and this was monitored by Trading Standards and acted upon if fraudulent activity meant the public were being misled. New premises were required to register 28 days before the commencement of trade and inspections were conducted in that period of time. In response to another question about whether customers could ask to see a premises rating if it was not displayed, the Head of Environment Services and Port Health said that the Council actively encouraged this and regularly reinforced this message around special dates, such as Christmas, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day etc.
A member of the Committee asked about the nature of written warnings which had been issued following food interventions. The Head of Environmental Services and Port Health said in 2018/19 a total of 543 such warnings had been issued and these related to issues, contraventions or recommendations with, for example, food management systems, cleaning etc. He added that serious concerns would be addressed via an Improvement Notice with a time period for improvements to be made clearly stated. In the event of the issue being very serious - for example food poisoning or rodent infestation etc. - a prohibition notice, ratified by a Court, would be issued to close the premises while the problems were resolved. The member asked if, for future Service Plan reports, a geographic breakdown of data might be possible. The Head of Environmental Services and Port Health said he would explore if this was possible and, if so, to what degree the data could be broken down.
The Head of Environmental Services and Port Health extended an invitation to the Scrutiny Committee's members to accompany his Officers on food premises inspections. The Cabinet Member with responsibility for Community Health thanked the Head of Environmental Services and Port Health and his teams for their exceptional work in ensuring the public's safety. On behalf of the Committee, the Chairman endorsed the Cabinet Member's comments.
There being no further questions or matters raised for debate, the Chairman moved to the recommendations. These were proposed, seconded and, by unanimous vote, it was
RESOLVED
1. That Food Safety and Health and Safety performance against the Service Plan for 2018/19 be noted; and
2. That, having considered and commented upon the Service Plan for 2019/20, the Scrutiny Committee recommended it for approval by Full Council at its meeting on 25 September 2019.