Canterbury City Council

The Authority's Food Service Plan made appropriate references to home authority activity, and stated that the Authority supported the Home Authority Principle (HAP), although it did not have any formal home authority agreements. In practice, officers were generally following the HAP when dealing with enquiries from other enforcement authorities, but it could not be confirmed that liaison had always taken place, when appropriate, during the course of food complaint investigations and the follow-up action on unsatisfactory sampling results.

There was evidence that the Authority was working with food businesses to help them comply with food safety legislation and was actively promoting food safety. This included the provision of relevant training and advice leaflets, although the details of advice provided had not been recorded in all cases.

The Authority's approach to advisory and promotional work appeared to be generally effective and well managed, within the available resources. A number of food promotion initiatives that were undertaken by the Authority in previous years had been discontinued because of insufficient staffing levels.

Central government initiatives were actively pursued by the Authority in relation to the local business community. In particular, the Authority had participated in Food Standards Agency funded Safer Food, Better Business (SFBB) pilot studies over the previous three years, with the aim of supporting businesses to comply with expected changes in food safety legislation.