ENFORCEMENT - Food Standards Agency Publish Local Food Law Report

Overall the service was found to generally comply with the national Standard and the Authority was keen to achieve continuous improvement in the service they provided to consumers in their area. However, the audit also revealed areas where the Authority was not complying with the Standard.

The audit showed that Telford & Wrekin were strong in the following areas:

• food safety complaints were thoroughly investigated and appropriate liaison with complainants and businesses was taking place;
• comprehensive monitoring of food hygiene enforcement activity was carried out which lead to appropriate and consistent enforcement of the law;
• were active and innovative in providing businesses with advice and in the promotion of food safety;
• the Authority had developed very user-friendly food hygiene inspection procedures. Staff carried out thorough food hygiene inspections, accurately risk-rated premises and took appropriate follow-up action;
• there was a consistent approach to enforcement by both food standards and food hygiene staff; and
• the Authority had adopted a thorough and systematic approach to the licensing of butchers.

Key areas where the Authority needs to improve are:

• the frequency of inspection of premises needs to be increased to a frequency not less than the statutory level laid down;
• deficiencies in the Authority's database need to addressed so the Authority can produce an effective food premises inspection programme and provide accurate statistical returns to the Agency;
• file records need to be complete to ensure that the history of events is clearly documented and the most appropriate enforcement action can be taken; and
• deficiencies in drafting improvement notices that could, at present, undermine legal action.