Minutes of Enforcement Liaison Group meeting: 23 June 2009

Present
Sarah Appleby – Food Standards Agency (FSA) (Chair)
Colin Houston – FSA
Shaheen Zar – FSA
Rachel Patrick – FSA
Chris Harvey – FSA
Joanna Fullick – FSA
John Barnes – FSA
Geoff Deville – FSA
Sharn Bowen – FSA
Bethan Campbell – FSA
Jane Davies – FSA Wales
Jim Thomson – FSA Scotland
Kirsty Dawes – Association of Port Health Authorities (APHA)
Simone Chia–Kangata – APHA
Duncan Campbell – Association of Public Analysts
Andrew Jamieson – EHIS
Gwyneth Rogers – LACORS
John Dyson – British Hospitality Association
Philip Davies – Welsh Local Government
Erica Smith – Food and Drink Federation
Jim McLauchlin – Health Protection Agency
Stuart Musgrove – IFST
John McKee – Northern Ireland Local Government Association
David Pearce–Tesco
David Pickering – Trading Standards Institute

Welcome and introductions
1. The Chair welcomed attendees to the meeting and apologised for the last-minute cancellation of the meeting scheduled for 9 February 2009, owing to adverse weather conditions, and thanked members for their co-operation.

Apologies for absence
2. Apologies for the meeting were received in advance from Michael Jackson (FSA/NI), Richard Withers (MHS), Alan Richards (APA), Damien Connolly (Belfast City Council), Jenny Morris (CIEH), Gerry Kasprzok (HSE), Una Kane (LACORS), Nick Baker (North Norfolk Council), Jeanette Longfield (Sustain) and Sue Davies (Which?).

Minutes of the previous meeting
3. No comments were raised with regard to this item and the minutes of the last meeting were accepted as an accurate record.
Action: secretariat to place final minutes on the Agency website

4. Joanna Fullick introduced the item to update members on progress to date of the Agency’s response to the Report of the Public Inquiry into the 2005 E.coli O157 Outbreak in Wales. The tabled paper ELG 06/03 provided an overview of how the Agency’s Food Hygiene Delivery Programme Board, which had been primarily set up for this purpose, would review the recommendations in the report and its proposed priority work areas. Although the programme board’s review of the recommendations would take place over the next five years, priority work areas will take precedence and shorter term projects, where practical, will be delivered earlier in the programme.

5. John Barnes highlighted that some of the recommendations relating to the audit process were based on the findings of 2005. The audit procedures have since been reviewed following consultation in early 2008 and new protocols established to address the issues raised. The audit process will continue to be reviewed in light of the final published report, to ensure protocols are in line with the recommendations made.

6. On the issue of 'procurement', Duncan Campbell pointed out that the food procurement project suggested broadening the Agency’s objectives on improving consumer diets, from food safety to also include food standards such as fat and salt content of foods. Stuart Musgrove noted that food procurement was challenging, as those purchasing food were unlikely to have food safety knowledge and their priority would be on the price rather than value. Gwyneth Rogers commended the good work that had been undertaken in Wales by the Welsh Local Government Association in relation to food procurement. Erica Smith informed members of the proactive work that the FDF were carrying out with their industry members to ensure that their suppliers from other countries, such as China, are compliant with food law. John Dyson pointed out that information on food safety standards was available to procurement officers, and proposed that the Pennington Report was an opportunity to undertake a root and branch review of enforcement practices.

7. The Chair confirmed that food safety had to be the first priority, but noted that there were various initiatives being taken forward on food matters, both within the Agency and across government. The programme board would try to co-ordinate these and build on them where possible.

8. Jane Davies provided further information on the food procurement project that Value Wales and the Welsh Assembly Government was leading on in respect of food safety and dietary health. She also noted that with regards to introducing third-party audits, it was important to look at what was already available and to recognise the key importance of feeding back information relating to problems in the food chain, at the point of delivery, to those enforcement agencies that can actually do something about it. Introducing additional tiers could over-complicate the process.

9. The Chair thanked members for their useful updates and discussions. She recognised that there was a need to continuously challenge the way in which the Agency handles issues and to review processes accordingly. Reflection was needed, in the first instance, on where processes were working well and how resources could be targeted most effectively. The proposed priority work areas detailed in Joanna’s paper would be discussed by the FSA Board at its open meeting on 14 July 2009.

Audit
10. John Barnes introduced this item and updated the group on the review that had been carried out on audit, which included UK consultation on the proposed changes, which was part of the Agency’s Changes to Local Authority Enforcement (CLAE) initiative. There were a number of national and UK drivers to the changes made: Pennington Inquiry Report, Hampton Report and EU Audit guidelines requiring a five-year audit cycle on authorities.

11. John emphasised that audits were now more outcome focussed, targeting service areas key to improving compliance and the greater use of business ‘reality checks’. The consultation comments confirmed that local authorities saw value in a continuing central FSA audit programme as it secured improvements by supporting local authority (LA) services, raising their profile and attracting greater resourcing. But, the approach taken at FSA audit had undergone a number of changes following consultation with LAs, notably: greater audit emphasis on HACCP-based LA assessments and in turn business compliance; improved identification and sharing of LA 'good practice' a more user-friendly and readable audit report format.

12. Some of the key findings of the recent audit programmes, showed that the overall standard of enforcement carried out by LAs was reasonably good. While authorities had areas where improvements were required, many had good practice that could be shared, and few systemic failings were seen. However, John pointed out that there were certain problem areas that had to be addressed, e.g. approvals procedures in general and the need for a greater focus by some authorities on more effective follow-up action on persistent offenders.

Monitoring
13. John explained that the new monitoring arrangements for LAEMS (Local Authority Enforcement Monitoring System) had been developed with local authorities. The system has been designed to enable it to automatically upload data on all enforcement activity, e.g. number of inspections, samples and formal enforcement actions. LAEMS will also, for the first time, be able to collate full UK data on business compliance levels. Despite teething problems, and in some cases authorities needing to invest a lot of time to effectively install the new arrangements, they had been very positive about overcoming problems, because of the long-term benefits of the new arrangements.

14. John stated that it was the intention of the Agency to analyse the data collected from LAs and together with the 2008/09 enforcement report, form the basis of identifying any improvements required. To assist that process, it was agreed that a joint FSA/stakeholder working group would be established to discuss the following issues on the new LAEMS system:

• data needs, and the content of the report on the 2008/09 monitoring data, which will be presented to the FSA Board and published on the Agency’s website
• operational issues on LAEMS, and any improvements required in light of feedback on the first returns for 2008/09

Action: John Barnes

15. The Chair thanked John for the helpful and informative paper, and commented on the new data system. The Chair supported the proposal of setting up a joint working group, and invited Members to share their views and put forward suggestions.

16. David Pearce reiterated the need for a fully risk-based approach to inspections, especially when contractors were being used for inspections. There were instances of no follow-up action by LA staff although significant issues of non-compliance had been identified. David suggested that in some instances it might be due to the lack of proper leadership on the part of LAs. Members agreed there was evidently a lack of leadership in some authorities and suggested that the Agency in liaison with LACORS should take the lead and provide support.

17. John acknowledged that some problems were evident and, in some cases, this may be due to a lack of strong leadership, but there was little evidence of a systematic failure across LAs. The Agency will work with LACORS, however, to address any leadership concerns. Gwyneth Rogers also noted that there was some extremely good leadership at local level.

18. The Chair introduced this item and noted that following the interest over the Salmonella Agona presentation delivered at the last meeting, members had agreed that further presentations would be welcome. Stuart Musgrave had therefore kindly offered to share his knowledge and experience on food sampling law and practice with the group.

19. Stuart provided a detailed introduction into the legislative history of food sampling of both EU and UK law and provided his experience of how food sampling was carried out in practice, and the problems with the current system and the challenges facing food analysts today. Members noted that while there has been an overall decrease in sampling, there is much co-ordinated activity around local and national objectives taking place around the UK.

20. The Chair invited Bethan Campbell to talk about the Agency’s new strategy for the period 2010-2015. Bethan delivered a presentation to the group outlining the Agency’s proposed strategy, which has been designed around improving public health, and to support that, two key strategic outcomes had been developed: ‘improve food safety’ and ‘improve the balance of the diet’.

21. Overall, members supported the plan and the Agency’s attempt to provide greater clarity with respect to its aims and objectives. In the ensuing discussions, there were concerns about the lack of reference in the plan to local authorities as key delivery partners. John McKee highlighted the mutual benefits of partnership working set out in the Statement of Intent document, and the need for that to be clearly reflected in the new strategic plan. Furthermore, Gwyneth Rogers emphasised the need for the plan to expand on how local authorities would be delivering the scheme on the ground on a day-to-day basis.

22. The Chair thanked Bethan for her update, and requested the issues raised by the group to be taken into account in their decisions on the final strategic plan.

Scores on the Doors (SotD)
23. The Chair reported that the SotD Steering Group met for the first time in March, and a work programme had been agreed. Two working groups have been set up to take forward the short-term activities in the work programme, and the first meetings took place in May. The draft minutes of the steering group and the working group meeting and other details are available on the Agency’s website. The Agency has held workshops with interested parties to identify the requirements to develop an IT platform, which would provide a single access point for consumers to businesses’ scores. The Chair pointed out that the Agency is conscious that success of a UK-wide scheme was dependant on food industry ‘buy-in’ and the need to work in partnership with the food industry and its representative bodies to establish the best possible national scheme.

Update on FSA restructuring programme
24. The Chair provided an update on the FSA’s restructuring programme, and explained that once restructuring had been finalised, details of key contacts around the UK will be published on the Agency’s website.

Date of next meeting
25. It was agreed that the next meeting would be held on 18 November.