North Hertfordshire
Wednesday 25 September 2002
14-16 January 2002
The audit highlighted severe problems in the Authority's approach to record keeping which undermined the Service's ability to fully demonstrate the standard of food law enforcement provided.
The information that was retrieved however, indicated that satisfactory levels of service delivery were being achieved in many areas. In particular, the Authority was routinely revisiting premises to ensure that unsatisfactory conditions identified during inspections were remedied. Food poisoning notifications received appropriate and thorough investigations.
The 3 key areas identified for improvement are fundamental to effective enforcement and consistent service delivery.
It is essential that officers are authorised to exercise powers that are appropriate to their individual levels of qualification and experience.
Systematic record keeping is necessary to underpin a comprehensive internal monitoring process.
Effective internal monitoring will enable the Authority to verify implementation of its own procedures across all areas of service activity and its conformance with official guidance.
The Authority's Strengths
Follow-up Actions to Food Premises Inspections
The Authority was routinely revisiting premises where problems had been identified during programmed inspections. Officers were consistently ensuring that unsatisfactory conditions and food handling practices were brought to the attention of proprietors and that corrective measures were taken
Investigation of Individual Cases of Food Poisoning
The Authority had a planned approach to dealing with individual notifications of food related infectious disease that was properly implemented and ensured that all notifications received appropriate investigation.
Key Areas for Improvement
Records
Information and details of actions across all areas of service activity were not recorded in a systematic manner and were held on a variety of systems. Significant historical information about businesses and inspections could not be easily identified and was not readily retrievable.
Adequate and retrievable records are important so that subsequent officers can be aware of premises’ histories of compliance; to enable appropriate enforcement decisions to be made in a staged approach and to permit effective internal monitoring to be carried out.
Officer Authorisations
The Authority had issued generic authorisations under the Food Safety Act 1990 for all Environmental Health Officers and Technical Officers, irrespective of their individual levels of qualification training and experience.
There was evidence of enforcement actions taken in practice that were not in accordance with the requirements of the relevant Food Safety Act codes of practice and contrary to the Authority’s own procedures.
Failure to authorise officers in line with their individual levels of qualification and experience could render the Authority vulnerable
to challenge during formal proceedings.
Internal Monitoring
There was no evidence that the Authority’s qualitative monitoring procedures had been fully implemented or that officers were being monitored across the full range of Service activities.
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