Local Authority Capacity and Capability: Annex D LAs EH and TS Roles and Responsibilities

This annex covers:

• local government structure and responsibilities
• roles and Responsibilities (as related to delivery of Official Controls)
• responsibility for food hygiene and meat safety delivery of official controls
• responsibility for food standards and delivery of official controls
• responsibility for feed law and delivery of official feed controls

Local government structure and responsibilities

• England – 333 local authorities  
  • Type 1 – Upper tier- county councils (24)
  • Type 2 – Lower tier- district / borough councils (181) 
  • Type 3 – Single tier (128)
• Wales – 22 local authorities (all single tier)
• Northern Ireland – 11 local authorities (all single tier)

Roles and Responsibilities (as related to delivery of Official Controls)

Food Hygiene (Environmental Health Officers) ^{(footnote 1)}    

Role

Environmental health officers are responsible for monitoring and enforcing health and hygiene legislation. They also investigate when there's an incident, such as pollution, a noise/odour problem, toxic contamination, pest infestation or an outbreak of food poisoning.

There are five disciplines of EH: environmental protection, food safety and integrity, health and safety, housing and community and public health.  

Duties could include:

• inspect businesses for health and safety, food hygiene and food standards,
• follow up complaints and investigate outbreaks of food poisoning, infectious disease notifications or pest infestations.
• collect samples for laboratory testing.
• enforce environmental health laws.
• investigate accidents at work.
• advise community groups and give educational talks.
• give evidence in court.
• write records and reports.
• advise employers on all environmental health matters    

Responsibilities

Delivery of official food hygiene controls is, for the most part, through local authority environmental health services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  In England, food hygiene controls are undertaken by District Councils, London Boroughs, Metropolitan Borough Councils and Unitary Authorities. All 22 local authorities in Wales and the 11 district councils in Northern Ireland undertake hygiene controls.    

Delivery responsibility across the system, including at the local authority level are outlined in the table below ‘Responsibilities: Table 1’.

Food Standards (Trading Standards Officers) ^{(footnote 2)}

Role

TS professionals act in the interest of consumers and legitimate businesses. They advise on and enforce laws that govern the way we buy, sell, rent and hire goods and services.
TS professionals work for LAs in England & Wales, advising on consumer & trading law (Regulatory areas outlined below), investigating complaints, conducting test purchasing & sampling, undertaking inspections and investigations. They provide community groups with advice and give educational talks. They have a range of enforcement tools, from providing business guidance, through to undertaking prosecutions to secure compliance. They enforce a wide range of legislation, which cover all types of businesses, in the following main regulatory areas:

• food standards – composition and labelling, food fraud. 
• animal feed
•  agriculture
• consumer & product safety
• intellectual property 
• fair trading – pricing, descriptions, hallmarking, doorstep crime, scams, banned practices.
• product labelling
• weights and measures
• under-age sales
• animal health and welfare
• overloaded vehicles
• civil law and advice
• fireworks & petroleum licensing.
•  Some TS jobs involve enforcing all aspects of TS work; some specialise in one area.

Responsibilities

Delivery of official controls is, for the most part, through LAs in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  In England and Wales, the work is generally undertaken by TS services (although EH services also undertake this work). In Northern Ireland it is undertaken by EH services.  

Food standard controls, where appropriate, are conducted by LAs in premises where the FSA have jurisdiction, for example an FSA-approved meat premises producing meat products which have compositional and labelling requirements.

In England, standards controls are undertaken by county councils, London boroughs, metropolitan borough councils and unitary authorities. All 22 LAs in Wales and the 11 district councils in Northern Ireland undertake standards controls.  

Delivery activities across the system, including at the LA level are outlined in the table below ‘Responsibilities: Table 2’.

Feed (Trading Standards Officers)  ^{(footnote 3)}

Role 

See role description for Food Standards (Trading Standards Officers).

Responsibilities

In England and Wales, delivery of official controls is, for the most part, through LAs (TS services).   

This includes registration and, where appropriate, approval of feed establishments (prior approval is needed for feed establishments which carry out certain high-risk activities such as the manufacture of feed additives and premixes, or the processing or blending of certain oils and fats). It also includes inspection and sampling work which is coordinated regionally through nine regions in England and six in Wales. 

The exceptions include the registration/approval of feed businesses that mix medicated feed and controls that relate to medicated feed, specified feed additives.  These controls are undertaken by Defra’s Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD).   

VMD is also responsible for monitoring veterinary medicine residues in feed and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), through its Chemical Regulation Division (CRD), undertakes pesticide residue monitoring. 

Controls that relate to the animal protein in feed ban are undertaken by Defra’s Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA). 

 
In Northern Ireland, all official feed controls are undertaken by DAERA’s Agri-food Inspection Branch.  Monitoring of pesticide residues is currently being delegated to HSE CRD.  

Policy responsibility is held centrally and divided between the FSA, Defra, Welsh Government (WG) and DAERA – delivery of official controls are outlined in the table below ‘Responsibilities: Table 3’.

Responsibility for food hygiene and meat safety delivery of official controls 

Responsibility for food standards and delivery of official controls

Responsibility for feed law and delivery of official feed controls