Torfaen County Borough Council

The authority had developed and implemented a detailed food service plan for 2010-2011 which satisfied the Service Planning Guidance in the Framework Agreement. The plan had been submitted to the appropriate member forum.

Officers had been authorised in accordance with their qualifications, training and experience.

Individual officer's training needs were identified as part of their annual performance review. Training records contained evidence that each officer had completed the required minimum ten hours relevant training in the last year.

The service had developed and implemented a wide range of documented policies and procedures covering its food law enforcement responsibilities. These documents were available to all officers in electronic format on a central directory and those evaluated during the audit contained up to date references to legislation and official guidance, but not all had been reviewed in accordance with the authority's policies and procedures.

Auditors reviewed seven premises files during the onsite audit. Food business operators were provided with clearly worded reports or letters confirming the findings from inspections, differentiating between legal requirements and advice. Various aide-memoires were being utilised during interventions/inspections and therefore it was not always possible to assess that all aspects of the inspection had been adequately addressed.

The authority had undertaken a full range of enforcement from warning letters to Hygiene Improvement Notices to prosecutions, including ensuring compliance with Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No.852/2004. During the verification visits undertaken as part of the onsite audit process it was evidenced that officers paid particular attention to compliance with food safety management systems based on HACCP principles.

It was evident from audit checks that officers were taking a graduated approach to enforcement and actively worked with businesses to achieve compliance. The information reviewed relating to Hygiene Improvement Notices and prosecutions identified that the enforcement decisions reached were appropriate to the contraventions identified and secured appropriate improvements in compliance.

The manager of the Food and Health and Safety Enforcement Team carried out random file checks to ensure consistency. However, not all internal monitoring was carried out as described in the authority's draft internal monitoring policy and records were not kept for a minimum of two years.