FSA 3-year Corporate Plan: Introduction

Purpose of the plan

In March 2022, the FSA published its 5-year strategy and vision for the food system, setting out its direction until March 2027. We also published a set of priorities (PDF) to deliver in the first year of the strategy, with a commitment to publish a 3-year corporate plan for the financial years 2023 to 2026.

This 3-year corporate plan (the plan) translates the strategy into action. It bridges the gap between the ambitions in our strategy and our more detailed annual business plans. It also includes progress indicators to show how we will evaluate progress against our strategy.

Our context and flexible approach

Our strategy emphasised the need to be flexible in our approach, against the backdrop of a fast-changing landscape. It also highlighted that the pace of change in technology and business models in the food system continues to accelerate.

Since we published the strategy, events have required us to reprioritise our work. These challenges and related pressures on our resources are likely to continue in future years and our planning must give us the agility to respond. We have therefore ensured that the plan allows sufficient flexibility by being explicit about what we must, should, or could achieve, as resources allow.

This has been informed by our Spending Review 2021 settlement from HM Treasury, which provided an essentially flat budget for each of the 3 years of the review period up to 2024/25. We therefore need to adopt a plan that can be delivered within our existing resources and allows us to absorb inflationary pressure or unexpected pressures. 

Structure of the plan

This plan has 2 parts:

• our ambitions and progress indicators set out how far we want to take our mission and vision for the next 3 years and how we will monitor this - Appendix 2 includes further details on progress indicators
• our objectives set out how we will deliver these ambitions - Appendix 1 includes further details on the activities we will work on for the next 3 years

3 and 4 country working

This plan covers the FSA’s role across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, reflecting our ‘One FSA’ approach. For all of the objectives, we have considered the specific circumstances of each country, and will ensure that stakeholders from each country are informed and heard. We also work collaboratively with Food Standards Scotland in line with our commitments to 4 country working. Further information on the FSA in Wales and Northern Ireland are set out in our prioritised plan for Wales and report from the Director of the FSA in Northern Ireland.