BC 23-06-04 Performance and Resources report Quarter 4 2022/23

There have been some significant challenges during 2022/23, however, notwithstanding these challenges, as highlighted by our key metrics, our achievements during quarter 4 include:

’Doing the day job’

Achieved our quarter 4 meat food business audit target (90%) for a third successive quarter. Of the 97% audits completed, the highest delivery achieved since the COVID-19 pandemic, all high risk premises were audited during the period at the required frequency.

LAs made good progress in compliance with the Recovery Plan. Q4 data supports many LAs are completing planned inspections of low risk categories emphasising how the system is closer to aligning with Food Law Code of Practice expectations, particularly for retailers, restaurants and caterers, where inspections are near pre-pandemic levels. 

Although redeployed / diverted staff have returned to food services, there has been a drop in Full Time Equivalent (FTE) posts allocated to food hygiene services in the last 10 years. The lack of suitably qualified people available for LAs to employ has contributed to the fall in filled posts. Some LAs are reporting significant difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff.

For foodborne disease, trends of gastrointestinal pathogens reporting should be interpreted with caution, particularly over the ‘COVID-19’ period (2020 to early 2022) due to many factors which impacted pathogen reporting. 

We have introduced a Risk Analysis and Regulated Products slide for the first time to show a complete picture of our performance in 2022/23, however, further detail will be provided in a dedicated paper going to the Board in 2023.

We have developed a set of Key Performance Indicators to measure the status of science at the FSA, presented for the first time, and indicate that we are making good progress towards key science outcomes.

‘Evolving our own capability and capacity’

We launched the FSA People Plan 2023-26 and refreshed our values, which sets out how we will improve as an employer to deliver our strategy, and maps out how we will attract and grow talent.

Meat food business compliance

97% full meat audit completion (+5% points higher than quarter 3)

Foodborne disease

Laboratory confirmed cases in UK per 100,000 population:

• 98.6 - Campylobacter
• 14.2 - Salmonella 
• 1.80 - Shiga-toxin-producing E.coli O157
• 0.30 - Listeria monocytogenes

Our people

(as at March 2023)

• 1,571 People employed by the FSA (includes fixed term and permanent staff only, excludes FSA Board and Business Committee members, and casual / contingent labour.)
• 69% CS People Survey engagement score - A 1% point increase from 2021 and above the CS benchmark of 65%.
• 6.08 Average working days lost - Below the Civil Service average of 7.9

Financial position

£4.1 million forecast underspend of 2022/23 Westminster budgets, of which: £2.1 million is CDEL
 

Local authority performance

• 99.5% interventions achieved at category A-rated establishments for hygiene. (Target: 100% by 31 Mar 2022)
• 99.0% interventions achieved at category B-rated establishments for hygiene. (Target: 100% by 30 Jun 2022).
• 0 LAs escalated through the process.

Key science outcomes

• 13.9% of total FSA budget is spent on Risk analysis, delivering our research programmes, analysis to support change programmes, science assurance and surveillance and national capability.

FSA sampling activities

• 11,868 samples taken
• 673 Non-compliant results
• £3.3 million total spend

Nutrition Northern Ireland

• 3,364 active MenuCal users - +38% increase in MenuCal users from March 2022 to March 2023.

Key successes in the quarter

Full audit completion achieved 97% in Q4 against a target of 90%, an increase of 5% points from quarter 3 (and 15% point increase from quarter 1). This reflects a third consecutive quarter of this target being met; the stabilisation of the workload post Covid-19 and the return to expected audit competition rates.  

The FSA audit team has been almost or fully resourced during quarter 4 meaning no additional veterinary audit resource has been required from our Service Delivery Partner to assist with the volume of audits in quarter 4.

98.7% (0.6% decrease from quarter 1) Meat FBO premises rated 'Good' or 'Generally satisfactory'. 

Number of meat FBOs rated

Full audit completion against target for England and Wales

Concerns / risks

The risk for recruitment and retention of auditors previously reported has now been reduced following the successful recruitment of a full complement of veterinarians to the audit team. It is recognised that the highly competitive veterinary market and geographical requirements of the roles could result in a re-escalation of this risk in future.

Next steps

Work continues to agree a memorandum of understanding and funding from Defra for increasing export assurance activity which will help support the FSA to provide assurance that establishments comply with requirements imposed by the third country.

Key successes in the quarter

LAs have made very good progress with food hygiene interventions in line with the Recovery Plan. 

There is a small drop in the number of businesses reported to be awaiting a rating since January 2023 (0.9%) to 39,173 reported in April 2023. While new registrations that still need to be prioritised dropped by 33.9% since January 2023.

FSA Recovery Plan - current RAG status

Timeline

Concerns / risks

New registrations prioritised as ’higher risk’ awaiting inspection are still high (8,800).  

LAs are reporting compliance has fallen in premises since COVID-19 and more enforcement activity is required. 

LAs are reporting challenges recruiting qualified food safety officers and contractors and there are reduced number of officers able to carry out full range of official controls. 

Next steps

Actively engage and monitor LAs that have yet to give an acceptable level of assurance of performance in key areas.

Is the system as a whole targeting the risks?

• interventions achieved at the higher risk rated A, B, C (less than broadly compliant) and D (less than broadly compliant) establishments are high (99%, 99%, 97% and 96% respectively).
• LAs made good progress on interventions at C-rated establishments overall (89%) – milestone 31 March 23. 
• in addition to progressing with the higher risk businesses, LAs have made inroads into the backlog of mid-low risk businesses (Cs, Ds and Es) with 176k having received an intervention over the year. Due to the higher volumes of premises in these categories (c.25x more than As and Bs), progress to pre-pandemic levels is expected to take longer. Interventions achieved at Cs, Ds, and Es were 75% of the number achieved pre-pandemic (2018/19). 

Planned interventions achieved at A-rated, B-rated, C-rated and C and D less than broadly compliant (bc*) establishments

How does LA delivery compare to previous years?

• the analysis of FHRS data for ‘retailers' and ‘restaurants and caterers' allows us to look at LA delivery using close to live data. 
• reassuringly, within this subset of establishments, LA service delivery is coming in line with pre-pandemic levels.

All interventions achieved at retailers, restaurants and caterers

Are occupied resources returning to food hygiene control delivery work?

• slight variations in FTE data should be treated with caution as they are LAs’ estimates and only provide an indicator of resource. 
• some LAs reported additional professional resource was allocated to deal with backlogs of food controls work between April 2021 and April 2022. Where this resource was funded for a short time on top of the normal allocated resource, this is included in the FTE posts on a pro-rata basis. 
• some LAs have reported issues with recruitment of fully competent staff or long-term sickness of staff. 

Professional FTEs for food hygiene controls work

Local Authority performance and FSA oversight

How are LAs managing new businesses and is there an increase in the level of unknown risk entering the system?

• the number of unrated businesses (39k), “New registrations that need to be prioritised” for inspection (3.1k) and “New registrations prioritised as ’higher risk’ awaiting inspection” are decreasing, suggesting an improvement in the management of unknown risk in the system.
• for “New registrations prioritised as ’higher risk’ awaiting inspection” a change of wording to the question may have contributed to the large increase in October 2022 where some LAs may have reported all new businesses that had been triaged regardless of risk. The wording used in January 2023 and April 2023 was ‘higher risk’.
• the number of new registrations (new businesses or change of business ownership) changes over time as new registrations come in and interventions of previously unrated businesses take place.

Unrated businesses reported in each return*

*Until April 2022 data available from end of year annual returns. Since then data was collected quarterly. 

Prioritisation of new registrations at each quarter

Status of LA engagement

• LAs are selected for engagement based on risk. 
• based on the first tranche from the Q4 data, there are an initial 37 LA engagements (26 for food hygiene and 11 for food standards) across the three countries.
• 79 LA engagements have been carried over from previous quarters (47 for food hygiene and 32 for food standards) and we will continue to monitor the progress of the LAs concerned.
• when sufficient assurance is received that the delivery issues have been/are being addressed, the engagement is closed. An additional 50 engagements have been closed since January 2023.
• there are no LAs currently in the established escalation process.

Status of LA engagement following the April 2023 temperature check survey

Open cases

Closed cases

Escalations

) LAs escalated through the escalation process

Key successes in the quarter

Risk Analysis - Our public register of risk analysis issues has been added to during the quarter and contains 22 risk analysis issues, 6 more than in quarter 3. Of those issues, 16 are progressing through the risk assessment and evidence gathering phase of the process, 1 is undergoing development and agreement of a risk management approach, and 5 issues have been recorded as complete, an increase of 2 from quarter 3. 

Regulated Products – We have completed 3 applications this quarter bringing our total to 34 since the service went live in January 2021. We have made steady progress with authorisations and have advised Ministers to authorise a further 15 applications, which included 8 new Genetically Modified products, 2 Novel Foods and 2 Food Additives. The Statutory Instruments legislating these authorisations were laid in each of the nations and will come into force in the next quarter.

Risk Analysis - key insights

22 issues are on the risk analysis register, with:

• 16 at risk assessment / gathering evidence
• 1 where risk management options are
• being developed
• 5 completed issues

Regulated products - key insights

There are 438 applications in the service in the following stages:

• 241 at Pre-Validation
• 162 at Risk Assessment
• 20 at Risk Management
• 15 at Authorisation
• We have completed 34 applications to date

Concerns / risks

Regulated Products - We expect that the caseload in the risk assessment stage will continue to build and that the flow of  products into the system will vary from year to year. This makes accurate forecasting challenging and it will become a risk if the caseload builds beyond acceptable levels. The risk assessment stage is where pressure may build up as this is the most resource intensive stage, and where there is greatest uncertainty, as specific issues may not become clear until detailed work on a dossier has started. We have undertaken modelling and analysis to better understand the risk of having insufficient resources to meet the expected demand.
CBD products continue to form a significant proportion of the caseload. Although the number of applications is large, these are being grouped by common characteristics or issues to efficiently assess these products.

Next steps

Regulated Products - The new Case Management System (CMS) will start receiving new applications in early June 2023. We expect the new system will help to drive significant efficiencies by reducing the number of contacts that result in non-applications. In Q4, there were 136 contacts resulting in 36 applications progressing (26%). As CMS embeds, we will be able to gather business intelligence to deliver more robust reporting and further develop our Key Performance Indicators.

Rate per 100,000 population laboratory confirmed cases in the United Kingdom, 2015 to 2022*

Campylobacter

Shiga toxin-producing E.coli O157

Salmonella

Listeria monocytogenes

*Data are derived from multiple live reporting systems managed by The UK Health Security Agency, Public Health Wales, Public Health Scotland and Public Health Agency Northern Ireland. Data are provisional and may change. Rates per 100,000 population are calculated using ONS mid-year population estimates (2021 estimates used for 2022 as 2022 estimates not yet available). Trends over time should be interpreted with caution, particularly over the ‘COVID-19’ period (2020 to early 2022) due to many factors which impacted pathogen reporting.

Key successes

• we have continued to progress our key priorities and work to identify interventions intended to reduce cases of infectious foodborne disease across target pathogens particularly Listeria and Campylobacter. We have also delivered consumer messaging on a range of issues including reducing food waste and the cost of living crisis.
• between January 2022 and December 2022, UKHSA and FSA jointly investigated over 40 new or ongoing clusters of cases with GI infections identified through genomic-based surveillance that were either linked with or potentially linked with foodborne disease, resulting in a number of successful outbreak investigations which identified the vehicle and/or source of contamination after which effective control measures were implemented including:
  • Salmonella outbreak associated with chocolate products resulting in the largest ever recall of chocolate products worldwide.
  • Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak associated with raw drinking milk, resulting in action taken by Dairy Operations.
• safeguarding measures implemented against imported feeder rodents previously linked with Salmonella outbreaks associated with reptile ownership. 
• risk analysis to provide targeted consumer advice on listeria in smoked fish in response to a listeriosis outbreak associated with ready to eat smoked fish.

Concerns/risks and Responses/Next steps

*UK Public Health Agencies, UK Health Security Agency, Public Health Wales, Public Health Scotland, Public Health Agency Northern Ireland 
 

One of our guiding principles in the Strategy is that we are science and evidence led.  The evidence we generate from our science and analysis is critical to our decision making, management of risks, and improving food and feed regulation and policy. We have developed a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure the status of science at the FSA which have been presented for the first time in slide 12 and indicate that we are making good progress towards key science outcomes. Slide 13 will also cover our annual information for FSA sampling activity.

Key successes

Key science outcomes

Most aspects of science, are performing as required, subject to a one area of concern, as highlighted in the KPIs in slide 12.  

Some KPIs are now notably higher than the benchmark we set for them particularly those around our culture of openness and collaboration.
Ongoing monitoring, where available has shown all but one of the KPIs has improved from 2021/22, indicating that we are making good progress towards our key outcomes in their first full year of monitoring.

FSA sampling activity

We have maintained broadly the same level of sampling as for 2021/22, sustaining the contribution of this activity to ensuring the safety and standards of our food. This has been achieved through a slight increase in spend of the cost of sampling due to current economic situation. 
Following the successful pilot, the LA Directed Food Standards sampling programme will continue as business as usual. This programme supports LA Official Control sampling being used to improve compliance in food businesses.

Our National Reference Labs have developed or adapted 7 analytical methods for testing food and feed, including a method to determine the prevalence of Polyfluroalkyl substances (PFAS; long-lasting chemicals with potential health affects) in food, feed and food contact materials. These methods can be transferred to the Official Labs to increase testing capabilities.

Concerns/Risks and Next steps

Science key outcomes and performance indicators

We are a trusted provider of independent evidence (Delivery)

• 95% of evidence packages meet our target to ensure the risk analysis process is being followed and outputs are fit for purpose. Below our 100% target.
• 70% Satisfaction score for Science, Evidence and Research from FSA colleagues using our internal survey which ensures we are improving the use of research and evidence across the agency.
• Achieving our 70% target.
• 13.9% of total FSA spend is on science to ensure we maintain total science investment. Above our 10% target.

Science will continue to sit at the heart of the FSA (Capability)

• £1.3 million FSA spend on National Reference Labs to safeguard national science capacity. Above our £1 million target.
• 105 Experts on Science Advisory Committees (SACs) to retain access to external expertise. Above our target of 100.
• 56% of external science spend Is outside of London/South East region. Above our 50% target.

We have a culture of openness and collaboration (Partnership)

• 129 reports published as a result of SERD funding to maintain or increase the use of FSA science. Above our target of 75.
• 19 fellows and students to retain and enhance support for those working in the FSA. Above our target of 15.
• 56% leverage of external funds To maintain or increase research
• collaborations by co-funding joint projects. Above our 10% target.

Regulatory monitoring

• 6,768 samples taken
• 51 non-compliant results
• £1.33 million*

Purpose

This is sampling carried out to monitor compliance with prescribed regulatory standards. It includes Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), shellfish and radiological sampling. 

Successes

Shellfish and associated water sampling has enabled the classification of beds, ensuring that shellfish receive the correct level processing to be safe to eat, and if necessary, harvesting is prevented to protect consumers. The annual radiological monitoring programme checks that discharges from UK nuclear sites do not cause unacceptable exposure to radioactivity through our food. The latest report in 2022, as in previous years, showed that doses to the public from all sources of exposure to artificial radioactivity, including food, were well below the legal limit.

Targeted surveillance

• 2,585 samples taken
• 367 non-compliant results
• £1 million

Purpose

Sampling and testing of specific commodities for specific hazards which forms part of the FSA’s work to consider emerging risks. Decisions on which commodities / hazards to target is based on intelligence from a variety of sources. Thus, aims to validate intelligence that there may be a risk.

Successes

This targeted sampling successfully identified a potential emerging risk - undeclared peanut in African spices, which presents a risk to those with a peanut allergy. Results of non-compliant samples were raised with the relevant LAs for follow-up, a letter sent to all LAs alerting them to the results and this intelligence shared with industry through the FSA’s Food Industry Liaison Group and Food Industry Intelligence Network.

Sampling to inform Science and Research

• 1,301 samples taken
• 39 non-compliant results
• £0.65 million

Purpose

Sampling undertaken on a specific topic to increase our scientific knowledge on the risk to consumer from food and feed in areas such as antimicrobial resistance and chemical contaminants. This work informs risk assessments and policy.

Success

Surveys undertaken to inform our knowledge on the risk of food and feed. included a survey of 80 cat food products to provide data on mycotoxin presence and concentrations. The results will be reviewed by the FSA’s Advisory Committee on Animal Feedstuffs and will inform policy and advice to industry. In addition, a survey of AMR bacteria in retail chicken and turkey which will contribute to the National Action Plan on AMR.

Official Controls (Enforcement Sampling)

• 1,214 samples taken
• 216 non-compliant results
• £0.35 million

Purpose

Supports LA activity by funding targeted sampling but does not seek to replace their own local sampling programmes. Samples may be taken due to adverse results from FSA targeted surveillance, in order to bring businesses into compliance.

Successes

Over quarter 3 and quarter 4, the FSA funded 13 LAs to take 263 samples from targeted points within the supply chain, with known risks, as part the food standards directed sampling programme.  Samples taken have included, imported soft drinks from wholesalers/cash and carry/importers tested for composition such as non-permitted additives, and labelling, and kebab from manufacturers tested for composition. Where non-compliant results are obtained LAs take appropriate action to bring businesses into compliance.

*excludes cost of radiological monitoring funded by industry

**not including samples taken for trichinella testing

Key successes

In 2022/23 the number of respondents that recognise, understand and use the Front of Pack nutrition label has increased, with an increase of 4%, 6% and 3% respectively.

MenuCal is a free, online tool provided by the FSA to support small to medium size businesses in Northern Ireland to calculate calories and manage allergens in the food and drink they serve. In 2022/23 there was an increase in the number of new users (37%), logins (187%), recipes inputted into the tool (72%) and updated (104%) demonstrating it is being well used. This year's substantial increases are greater than previous years and may be due to the introduction of mandatory calorie labelling in England.

Concerns/risks

The Covid-19 pandemic, rising inflation and the war in Ukraine have resulted in significant increases in the cost of food, drink and energy, and impacted the availability of some foods. This has resulted in Northern Ireland (NI) consumers facing competing priorities when deciding what to buy and eat, meaning health may not be the primary influence. These factors, as well as staff shortages, have also affected food businesses which may impact MenuCal usage which may mean they engage less with health e.g. applying nutritional labelling.

Next steps

Continue to monitor NI consumers’ understanding, knowledge and use of traffic light labels through the Eating Well Choosing Better consumer tracker survey. Questions for the next phase of the survey are being reviewed and the fieldwork for this is due to be completed in Autumn 2023 with the report expected in Spring 2024. 

Gather user feedback to inform technical improvements to the MenuCal tool making it more user friendly and continue to monitor usage.  

Eat Well Choosing Better survey results (fieldwork from September to November 2022) 

*Data from 2020 is not available.

Recognition, use and understanding of the traffic light labels

• 91% recognise the traffic light label which has remained high and consistent throughout each survey. (increase of 4% points from 2021)
• 85% understand the traffic light label (increase of 6% points from 2021)
• 45% use the traffic light label (increase of 3% points from 2021)
• 62% buy food with healthier traffic light colours (green/amber) (decrease of 2% points from 2021)

Nutrition in Northern Ireland - MenuCal

Number of active MenuCal users

38% increase in MenuCal users from March 2022 to March 2023. 

Number of logins to the MenuCal tool

187% increase in logins to the MenuCal tool in 2022/24 compared to 2021/22. 

Number of recipes inputted to MenuCal

72% increase in recipes inputted into MenuCal from March 2022 to March 2023. 

Number of recipes updated by users on MenuCal

104% increase in recipes updated in 2022/23 compared to 2021/22. 

The MenuCal tool has been well used throughout the last year. The number of users that have signed up and recipes inputted into the tool have increased in 2022/23 Quarter 1 to 4. Despite fluctuating, there were more logins to MenuCal in 2022/23 than in previous years. 

MenuCal is mostly used by small to medium sized businesses – 91% of the businesses that registered in 2022/23 reported having between 1 and 200 employees.

Key successes in the quarter

• Enterprise level regulation: Proof of concept trial endorsed to test new ways of regulating at business level (for food hygiene and in England only) to commence in quarter 1 2023/24. Close collaboration continued with the retailers (Aldi, Asda, Morrisons, Sainsburys Tesco and Waitrose) and their Primary Authorities (PAs) to ensure readiness. Aldi, Asda, Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s will launch first, and agreement was reached with Morrisons to move their start back by 6 months so that their resource is readied to take part in the trial towards the close of quarter 2 2023/24.
• Online assurance: Continued external engagement with Local Authority (LA) colleagues through a Chartered Institute for Environmental Health (CIEH) webinar, covering ABC work in the online space, current delivery and how they link with the strategic aims of the workstreams. 
• Food standards: FSA Board approved the launch of changes to the Food Law Codes of Practice (FLCoP), following the pilot in 2021/22 and conclusion of consultation which we aim to launch quarter 1 2023/24. 
• Food hygiene: Proposal endorsed by Programme Board for wider stakeholder engagement to commence in quarter 1 2023/24 on initial policy proposals.
• Transformation update: The FSA Board decided to slow further work on legislative change for delivery of Official Controls to ensure that it is progressed in a more considered way alongside wider policy and legislative changes under a single transformation programme. Any ongoing transformative projects will now be led by ABC and any more immediate modernisation updates will be led by the Operational Modernisation Team.

Concerns/risks

There may be opportunities under the Retained EU Law Bill to make targeted legislative changes to support ABC reforms (in 2024-26). We are reprioritising policy work within the programme so we can consider whether any such changes might be needed. 

Next steps

• Enterprise level regulation: Engagement event to be held in London to welcome participating Large Retailers and their PAs together with the FSA, to reflect on the proof of concept trial’s progress. 
• Online assurance: Collaboration with external stakeholders to explore further areas that would add value to the consumer, research towards this expected to start in Q2 2023/24. 
• Food standards: Ministers’ agreement will be sought on the necessary changes to the FLCoP in England and Northern Ireland, and preparation will commence for the Food Standards Delivery Model pilot beginning in Wales.  
• Food hygiene: Invitations to be issued to LAs for face-to-face and online engagement events updating on the 6-month pilot of the proposed food hygiene delivery model launching in early 2024.

Key successes in the quarter

We presented a new three-year corporate plan for the FSA to the Board in March, setting out how we will turn the ambitions of our strategy into concrete action. We also presented the way this has informed our priorities for 2023/24.

We published our people plan for 2023 to 2026, setting out how we will improve as an employer and the benefits this will bring us, the businesses we regulate and the public whose health we protect. It includes an updated set of ASPIRE values, which articulate how we want to show up at work and what we expect of one another.

We continue to deliver collaborative projects in the space of food that is healthier and more sustainable. This includes the School Food Standards Compliance Pilot to investigate the feasibility of local authorities completing checks to identify potential non-compliance with nutritional standards of food in schools. Research evidence collected from the evaluation of the second phase of the pilot was used to inform the final phase of the pilot launched in February 2023. 

Concerns/risks

While we have been able to re-commence some paused work that we de-prioritised earlier in the year, we will need to keep this under review and carefully consider which activities the FSA has the capacity to take forward in 2023/24 (this is described in the three-year corporate plan).

Next steps

We launch our three-year corporate plan internally at the start of quarter 1 2023/24 and publish a more detailed version externally later in the quarter. We engage with FSA staff to explore what the plan means for their teams and ensure their plans for the coming year align with the overall objectives of the organisation.

We will continue to deliver key projects in the space of food that is healthier and more sustainable.

We will continue to keep the FSA’s workload under review and consider whether further prioritisation is needed in the course of 2023/24, including revisiting items that were reduced, stopped or paused.

In quarter 1 of 2023/24, we will recommence work considering the FSA’s role in contributing to food that is healthier and more sustainable, building on the work described in the three-year plan, this work was paused earlier in the year. This will include more precise definitions of our ambition, and ideas for further specific work we could contribute to as resources and circumstances allow. 

Key successes in the quarter

2021/22 Annual Reports and Accounts have been laid in Parliament and respective Assemblies in January 2023.

Continued to recruit and onboard staff to deliver our three year corporate plan, increasing full time equivalent (FTE) staff by 42 during quarter 4 to 1,534.

2022/23 finance outturn indicated FSA has lived within HMT control limits, although this is subject to audit by the National Audit Office.

The Supplementary Estimate, the formal method by which government departments seek parliamentary authority for expenditure, was finalised and published in quarter 4.

Finalised and published rates FSA will charge for official controls and communicated these to industry in advance of the new financial year.

Integrated budget and planning exercise for 2023/24 was completed in quarter 4, allowing budgets to be set and approved ahead of the new financial year.

£4.1 million forecast underspend of 2022/23 Westminster budgets of which:

• £2 million underspend on RDEL, which acts as headroom for the audit
• £2.1 million underspend CDEL: 
• £1.4 million on CDEL (ringfenced) caused by project underspends
• £0.3 million on CDEL for IT and estates which acts as headroom for audit
• £0.3 million for CDEL IFRS 16 (ringfenced) caused by technical accounting underspends

121+ people actual NET FSA Full Time Equivalents from quarter 4 2021/22 to 2022/23. 

Concerns/risks

The FSA will closely manage the financial position next year as we absorb the impacts of inflation, any pay settlement agreed with HMT and new priorities which may emerge to ensure we do not breach our HMT control totals.

Next steps

Budget delegation letters to be finalised and sent from CEO to all Directors at the start of quarter 1 outlining the budgets they are managing and their personal responsibilities.

2022/23 Annual Report and Accounts will be collated and prepared in advance of audit by the National Audit Office in Autumn 2023.

We will undertake a full review of budgets and forecasts at quarter 1 to ensure they remain appropriate for the financial year, and rebalance if necessary.

A new Performance Assurance Report, the mechanism by which EMT will collectively monitor, discuss and challenge performance, will be produced and discussed for the first time in April.

*Provisional outturn, subject to statutory audit

**CS Statistic March 2022

Successes

Overall engagement score for the Civil Service People Survey (CSPS) was 69%, +1% point from 2021, and above the CS benchmark of 65%. 

Highest CSPS engagement levels (79%) were amongst our youngest demographic (20-24yrs), +10% points on FSA overall.

Launched the FSA People Plan 2023-26 and refreshed our values, which sets out how we will improve as an employer to deliver our strategy, and maps out how we will attract and grow talent.

20% of new recruits declared a disability in the last quarter, increasing our overall representation to 9.1%, which compared to March 2022 is 1.3% points closer to the CS benchmark (14%) and economically active population (16%).

3 health and safety ambitions were developed for 2022/23. Two of these were achieved with a 45.5% reduction in employee lost working days due to injury and a 49.7% reduction in accident and occupational disease rate. 

• 1,571 people* employed by the FSA as at 31 March 2023 (*includes fixed term and permanent staff)
• 11.3% attrition rate
• 69% CSPS FSA engagement score, a 1% point increase from 2021 and above the CS benchmark of 65%.
• 288 recruitment campaigns run; 284 new starters to the FSA, 98 internal promotions (excludes internal/lateral moves), more than 150 reserve candidates
• 6.08 average working days lost, below the Civil Service average of 7.9 (for 2021/22, average working days lost were 6.27)

Concerns/Risks

29.6% of the workforce has not made an active disability declaration and we need to understand barriers to this.

Take up of employee exit feedback forms is low, we need to undertake more work to encourage completion of the online questionnaire.

The final health and safety ambition, ‘Elimination of incidents required to be reported externally to the Health and Safety Executive’ was not achieved. Key themes have been identified and addressed in the 2023-26 proposals, due to be discussed by EMT in June.

Next steps

Messaging during 'Supportive' and 'Inclusive' ASPIRE values focus months to encourage people to declare protected characteristics.

Socioeconomic background will be added as a field in the new finance and HR system and will be promoted in the planned Social Mobility campaign.
Targets, metrics and key performance indicators to measure progress against the People Plan will be finalised and incorporated into the new performance assurance framework.

We have kicked off the strategic skills forecast to enable gap analysis and subsequent development of organisational development plans as outlined in the People Plan.

We will recruit and train additional Fair Treatment Champions; run the annual ‘Speak Up’ campaign and engage with staff networks and managers to promote understanding of unacceptable behaviours.