Minutes of Enforcement Liaison Group meeting: 25 June 2008

Friday 9 January 2009

Held in conference rooms 4 and 5, Aviation House, London WC2B 6NH

Present

Tom Murray - FSA (Chairman)
Phil Dalton - British Retail Consortium
Catriona Stewart - FSA
Sally Barber - British Retail Consortium
David Millis - FSA (Secretary)
Rowena Finlayter - FSA
John McKee - Northern Ireland Local Government Association
Geoff Deville - FSA
David Lock - LACORS
John Questier - FSA
Una Kane - LACORS
Julian Blackburn – FSA
Alan Curran - FSA
Jenny Morris – Chartered Institute of Environmental Health
Sarah Appleby – FSA
Philip Flaherty - FSA
Tony Hetherington – Health and Safety Executive
Sinead Gordon - FSA
David Pickering - Trading Standards Institute
Michael Jackson - FSA Northern Ireland
Phillip Davies - Welsh Local Government Association
Jim Thomson - FSA Scotland
John Dyson - British Hospitality Association
Mike Basset - FSA Wales
Kirsty Dawes - Association of Port Health Authorities

Agenda item 1 - Welcome and introduction

1.1 The Chairman welcomed Members to the meeting and Phil Davies (WLGA) was introduced as a new Member. He highlighted the value of the Group in providing stakeholder input on the development of key enforcement policy issues and emphasised the intention to focus the Group’s work on these areas in future

Agenda Item 2 - Apologies for absence

2.1 Apologies were received from: Wendy Martin - LACORS, Michael Hunt - Food and Drink Federation, Kevin McNunn – Society of Chief Environmental Health Officers of Scotland, Nick Baker - North Norfolk Council, Susan Knox - Foodaware, Jeanette Longfield - SUSTAIN, Andrew Jamieson - Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland, Dr Jim McLoughlin - Health Protection Agency, Gerry Kasprzok - Health and Safety Executive, Peter Midgley - FSA Scotland and Jane Davies - FSA Wales.

Agenda item 3 - Minutes of the last meeting (paper ELG June - 08/01)

3.1 Subject to amendment to accurately reflect attendance of the last meeting, the minutes were accepted as an accurate record. The Secretariat will arrange for the minutes and copies of the relevant papers to be placed on the FSA website.

Action: ELG Secretariat

Agenda Item 4 - ‘Scores on the doors’ (paper ELG June 08/02)

4.1 Introducing this paper Catriona Stewart highlighted that since the discussion on ‘scores on the doors’ (SOTD) at the last ELG meeting, a formal evaluation of a range of existing schemes to assess consumer understanding and impact on local authorities and on businesses had been completed. She explained that based on this evaluation, the FSA Board had made a number of recommendations for the development of a UK-wide scheme which were set out in a recently launched public consultation. Members were invited to comment, in particular, on the essential features of the proposals and options for a UK-wide scheme, and the proposed support package for local authorities operating such a scheme.

4.2 During the discussion it was highlighted that there has been broad support for the introduction of a UK-wide scheme to end the proliferation of different arrangements in different areas and to ensure and consistency and transparency for businesses and consumers. Phil Dalton, however, emphasised that the view of ELG was not unanimous in this respect as BRC did not recognise the need for the introduction of a SOTD scheme. He also noted that if a scheme were to be established it should be a single scheme and include appropriate safeguards. There was considerable debate as regards the merits of the various schemes and options set out in the consultation to achieve this.

Una Kane highlighted that the majority of existing schemes in England operated were based on a 5-star scoring system and to adopt an alternative scheme would be costly for local authorities and businesses and confusing for consumers. John McKee supported this and highlighted the positive experience of some local authorities operating 5-star schemes in Northern Ireland. In recognising the resource implications associated with operating existing schemes, David Lock emphasised the importance of providing an extensive support package for local authorities around the push for a UK-wide scheme and urged careful consideration of all options set out in the consultation, including the use of some elements of existing hygiene award schemes, in the development of such a scheme. In acknowledging the challenges of reaching a clear consensus on a single scheme, Jenny Morris felt that more work was needed to establish equivalence between the various schemes and to underpin the outcome of the consultation.

4.3 The Chairman accepted that a number of genuine difficulties needed to be resolved to achieve the successful introduction of a UK-wide scheme but emphasised the broad scope of Agency consultation that attempted to identify the key issues and where solutions are needed. He stressed that the Agency was open to all views and welcomes the opportunity to discuss any issues with stakeholders throughout and following the consultation period.

Agenda Item 5 - Review of the Agency’s local authority audit arrangements and related public consultation (paper ELG June - 08/03)

5.1 Introducing the paper, John Questier explained that the Agency’s arrangements for local authority audit were being reviewed to reflect the adoption of a more risk-based approach to take account of local authorities' own audit activity of their feed and food law enforcement services and to meet EU guidelines on audit criteria. The proposed changes will enable more effective targeting of the Agency’s central audit function, reduce burdens on local authorities and place a greater focus on feed and food law enforcement service outcomes.

5.2 John explained that a recent consultation had highlighted broad support for the key proposals, but also revealed that the number of local authorities own audit activities which are sufficiently robust and resourced to replace central the FSA audit function is limited.

5.3 While welcoming the recognition of local authorities own audit activity David Lock highlighted that the development of Inter Authority Auditing (IAA) and other initiatives placed additional burdens on local authority resources and stressed the importance of support from the Agency to identify and develop what is required in individual authorities. Phil Davies welcomed a tiered approach to audit in Wales and Michael Jackson reported that the Agency had carried out an evaluation of a pilot IAA scheme in Northern Ireland and will publish the result of this shortly.

In response to questions from Kirsty Dawes and John McKee, John Questier confirmed that the Agency will be piloting audits focussing on core areas of the audit ‘Standard’ with the aim of providing more streamlined and transparent audit protocols with associated guidance for local authorities. Phil Dalton welcomed any initiative that helped improve the consistency of local authority feed and food law enforcement services.

Agenda Item 6 - FSA Proposals for a review of the Framework Agreement (paper ELG June - 08/04)

6.1 Introducing this paper Geoff Deville explained that it would be necessary to update the Framework Agreement to reflect the changes being made to the intervention policy set out in the revised Food Law Code of Practice and the changes to the monitoring system and audit arrangements. Geoff explained that it was proposed to re-constitute the Framework Agreement Sub-group to take this work forward with the aim of having a revised Agreement in place by April 2009. Geoff confirmed that views on the revised Agreement will be sought from all local authorities and that it is proposed that the re-constituted sub-group will include local authority representation from all countries of the UK.

6.2 The Chairman reiterated that a major review of the Framework Agreement was not needed at this stage and highlighted that the Group would be kept informed of progress.

6.3 Members endorsed the approach for a review of the Framework Agreement proposed in the paper.

Agenda Item 7 - 'Safer Food Better Business’ work programme (paper ELG June - 08/05)

7.1 Julian Blackburn introduced the paper which set out progress to date on the Safer Food, Better Business (SFBB) programme and sought the Group’s views on the proposed SFBB work plans for 2008/09. Julian explained that these plans included work with catering colleges, trade organisation and cash and carry outlets to raise awareness of SFBB, and the targeting of hard to reach businesses including those with specific language needs. Julian also highlighted that the process for awarding a third tranche of SFBB grants to help local authorities support small caterers and retailers was now underway.

7.2 David Lock considered the current and planned SFBB programme to be a good example of a positive initiative that worked for both food businesses and local authorities. In response to questions regarding the application of SFBB in specific sectors, Julian explained that, following research, further work was planned on developing an SFBB pack for childminders and consideration was being given to additional guidance for kebab shops. As regards the allocation of grants to local authorities under the third tranche, John Dyson felt that it will be important to support applications that propose an innovative approach to targeting hard to reach businesses and highlighted that good communication is key to this.

Agenda Item 8 - Enforcement Liaison Group - revised membership and terms of reference (paper ELG - June 08/06)

8.1 Introducing this paper the Chairman highlighted that the terms of reference and membership of the Group were last reviewed in 2004 and that the Group’s work had since broadened to cover a wider range of strategic enforcement issues. He explained that the Secretariat had re-drafted the terms of reference of the Group to reflect this and invited members to consider and comment on these and on whether the current membership was appropriate to meet these terms.

8.2 As regards current membership, Jenny Morris felt that food businesses and consumers interests were under-represented, while John Dyson and Phil Dalton suggested that, in particular, the interests of small businesses should be represented. It was also suggested by Tony Hetherington and David Pickering that the Local Better Regulation Office (LBRO) should be invited to attend future meetings to provide a central perspective on better regulation issues.

8.3 The Chairman highlighted the value of the Group’s contribution and emphasised the importance of focussing on key issues. In agreeing with this John McKee suggested that the Secretariat should seek to identify one leading issue for detailed discussion at future meetings. In discussing the future remit of the Group Sarah Appleby suggested that it would be helpful to subsume work on imported food into the ELG to enable the wider consideration of the important cross cutting enforcement issues to be included in this workstream. Kirtsy Dawes commented that it would be helpful for the Imported Food Project Group (IFPG) to continue to meet to discuss detailed issues with Defra and Customs and it was agreed that the next IFPG would consider this proposal.

8.4 There was agreement that the Group should meet three times a year and that the Secretariat will fix the dates of the next three meetings in advance. It was also agreed that the Secretariat will write to Members to confirm representation and invite new members from small business and consumer organisations to attend future meetings. The Group also agreed that that the revised terms of reference should be adopted and published on the Agency’s website.

Action: ELG Secretariat

Agenda Item 9 - Any other business

9.1 No other business was raised.

Agenda Item 10 - Agenda items and date of next meeting

10.1 The Secretariat will agree dates for the next 3 meetings and advise Members, and the Chairman asked Members to send any suggestions for agenda items to the Secretariat.

Action: ELG members

Enforcement Liaison Group Secretariat
July, 2008