Castle Morpeth Borough Council

The Service was using a temporary computer database at the time of the audit which was limited in its ability to provide the data required for the Food Standards Agency monitoring returns. The information had to be supplemented by statistics manually retrieved from paper records. The Service had recognised the need to upgrade the electronic information management system and plans were in place to introduce new software by December 2004.

The Authority was selected for audit because it reported that it had no category A premises for food hygiene. Checks carried out during the audit confirmed that the nature of businesses in the Borough was unlikely to result in a large number of high risk premises and that premises were being correctly risk assessed on inspection.

Records indicated that statistics on sampling and complaints appeared to be accurately reported to the Food Standards Agency in the returns. There were however, some inaccuracies in the information being provided on the monitoring returns. Some of these inaccuracies related to a misunderstanding of the form's requirements, which is likely to have led to under-reporting of inspections achieved against the programme. In addition there were some omissions in respect of the reporting of follow-up actions, revisits following inspection and other visits.

At the time of the audit, only limited validation checks were being made of the accuracy of information being held on the database. It is likely that an increased level of checks would have picked up some of the discrepancies found. The Authority will need to continue to identify any discrepancies, particularly during the transition to a fully operational computerised database system.