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REGULATION (EC) No 882/2004 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 29 April 2004 on official controls performed to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules Article 41 - Multi-annual national control plans
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Under Article 41 of Regulation 882/2004, the UK was required to publish a 'Multi-annual national control plan'. The first plan had to be implemented no later than 1 January 2007 (see Article 42). The first 'Single integrated national control plan for the United Kingdom January 2007 to March 2011' was published on 14 December 2006.
Links
Inspection data is prepared for submission to the EU Commission. This was initially required under the Directive on the Official Control of Foodstuffs. The requirement has been continued under Regulation 882/2004 on Official Controls. The Food Standards Agency main page for the data can be found at: http://www.food.gov.uk/enforcement/ocddata/
Before the creation of the Food Standards Agency, access to the data was limited and data is provided on this site of a limited analysis. See:
Data for 1998 was originally published by the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (MAFF) and is available on an FSA Archive page. See:
Following the creation of the FSA, data has been published by the Agency. See
Also available on these pages is a news report relating to Audit Commission statistics. See UK News - 10 January 2001
Section 40 of the Food Safety Act 1990 provides for the Minister to issue Codes of Enforcement Practice relating to the operation of the Act. Enforcment officers have to be aware of the content of the Codes since failure to compy with them could result in a prosecution failing. More recently, Regulation 24 of the Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006 and Regulation 6 of the Official Feed and Food Controls (England) Regulations 2006 also provide for official Codes of Practice
Note: The following information relates to the development of the documents for England - similar developments have taken place for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland although details are not given on this page.
FSA News Item, 10 March 2006 Food Law Code of Practice The Agency has issued the Food Law Code of Practice and associated Practice Guidance for England. Revisions were necessary to take account of EU food hygiene regulations and the national implementing regulations relating to England, all of which are applicable from 1 January 2006. |
The Code of Practice and Practical Guidance are available on this site:
There were originally 20 Codes issued under the Food Safety Act (see below). Following a comprehensive review, a draft revised Code of Practice and Practical Guidance were circulated for comment in March 2003 (see UK News: 3 March 2003):
Following the consultation, these were then issued in October 2004 (see UK News: 25 October 2004):
Further changes were required following the adoption of the EU controls on official control and food hygiene. Proposals were issued in May 2005 (see UK News: 16 May 2005)
Further drafts were issued in November 2005 to take into account additional changes to the controls adopted by the EU (see UK News: 9 November 2005)
The Codes were then issued in March 2006 - see links above.
The Original Codes
Three Codes had been revised in October 2000 by the Food Standards Agency. Copies of these are provided on this site (see links below). Three other Codes were also issued previously (January 2000) as draft revised versions by the Department of Health. These are also provided on this site (in pdf format). These proposed versions indicated the suggested new text as well as the original text. The following is a complete list of the original Codes and their date of publication:
The following are a selection of links to relevant information on enforcement and inspection.
When this site was first created, some example court cases were included. Although the page is still available, the data has not however been updated. Please use with caution: