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)

Local Government Structures and Responsibilities

Tier structure and Local Authority type	Number of LAs	Food Safety Responsibility (Environmental Health)	Food Standards and Animal Feed Responsibility (Trading Standards)
Two tier area (England), County (upper)	24	No	Yes
Two tier area (England), District or Borough (lower)	181	Yes	No
Single tier area (England), London boroughs	33	Yes	Yes
Single tier area (England), Metropolitan borough	36	Yes	Yes
Single tier area (England), Unitary authorities	59	Yes	Yes
Single tier area (Northern Ireland), Unitary "districts"	11	Yes	Yes
Single tier area (Wales), Unitary authorities	22	Yes	Yes

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 hygiene and meat safety delivery of official controls

Area of responsibility	England	Wales	Northern Ireland
Welfare at slaughter and transport	FSA (slaughter) & LAs (transport)	FSA & LAs	DAERA
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) controls	FSA	FSA	DAERA
Specified Risk Material (SRM) and other animal by-products	FSA	FSA	DAERA
TSE controls in approved meat establishments	FSA	FSA	DAERA
Meat hygiene – in slaughterhouses, cutting plants and in minced meat, meat preparations and meat products premises which are combined with approved fresh meat premises	FSA	FSA	DAERA
Meat hygiene in minced meat, meat preparations and meat products premises	LAs	LAs	LAs
Dairy hygiene in milk production holdings	FSA	FSA	DAERA
Dairy hygiene in liquid milk establishments	LAs	LAs	DAERA
Dairy hygiene - in dairy products establishments	LAs	LAs	LAs
Dairy hygiene in combined milk production holding/dairy products establishments	FSA & LAs	FSA & LAs	DAERA
Raw milk sampling - cows	FSA	FSA	DAERA
Raw milk controls – species other than cows	LAs	LAs	DAERA
Hygiene – classification & monitoring of shellfish harvesting areas	FSA/LAs	FSA/LAs	FSA/LAs
Eggs hygiene – production units	APHA	APHA	DAERA
Eggs hygiene – packing stations	LAs	LAs	DAERA
Eggs hygiene – processing plants	LAs	LAs	LAs
Primary production	LAs	LAs	DAERA
Other hygiene controls including at catering and retail establishments	LAs	LAs	LAs
Import controls –products of animal origin (POAO)	LAs/PHAs	LAs/PHAs	LAs
Import controls – food of non-animal origin (non-POAO)	LAs/PHAs	LAs/PHAs	LAs
Fish and shellfish hygiene	LAs	LAs	LAs
FHRS	LAs	LAs	LAs
Trichinella controls	FSA	FSA	DAERA

Responsibility for food standards and delivery of official controls

Responsibility for food standards and delivery of official controls 

Area of responsiblity	England	Wales	Northern Ireland
Traceability	LAs	LAs	LAs
Nutrition labelling & health claims	LAs	LAs	LAs
Labelling: safety (including allergens and date marking)	LAs	LAs	LAs
Labelling: general (where does not relate to food safety or nutrition)	LAs	LAs	LAs
Beef labelling – compulsory requirements	RPA & LAs	RPA & LAs	DAERA & LAs
Beef labelling – voluntary labelling	LAs	LAs	LAs
Fish labelling	MMO & LAs	MMO & LAs	DAERA & LAs
Protected food names - verification	Approved verification bodies	Approved verification bodies	Approved verification bodies
Protected food names - fraudulent use of registered food names	LAs	LAs	LAs
Composition & standards: organic produce – certification	Approved certification bodies	Approved certification bodies	Approved certification bodies
Composition and standards: organic produce – fraudulent labelling as ‘organic’	LAs	LAs	LAs
Composition & standards: foods for specific uses	LAs	LAs	LAs
Composition & standards: general - where it does not relate to food for specific uses or organic produce	LAs	LAs	LAs
Bottled water – recognition of natural mineral waters (NMWs) from non-EEA countries and review of LA decisions on recognition of other NMWs	DEFRA	FSA	FSA
Bottled water - other aspects	LAs	LAs	LAs
Wine standards	FSA & LAs	FSA & LAs	FSA & LAs
Genetically modified food / novel foods	LAs	LAs	LAs
Chemical safety including contaminants in food, food contact materials, use of additives, flavourings etc.	FSA/LAs	FSA/LAs	FSA/LAs
Pesticide residues in food – national monitoring programme	HSE CRD	HSE CRD	DAERA (soon to be delegated to HSE CRD)
Veterinary medicines residues in food – national monitoring programme	VMD	VMD	VMD (DAERA oversees collection/analysis of samples)
Radioactivity monitoring in food	FSA	FSA	FSA
Inspection and approval of food irradiation facilities	FSA	FSA	FSA

Responsibility for feed law and delivery of official feed controls 

Responsibility for feed law and delivery of official feed controls 

Area of responsibilities	England	Wales	Northern Ireland (Out of Scope for Ipsos work)
Approvals of establishments manufacturing premixtures and feed containing a medicinal substance or a specified feed additive	VMD	VMD	DAERA
Approvals of other establishments where required and registration of feed premises	LAs	LAs	DAERA
Feed hygiene inspections and sampling	LAs	LAs	DAERA
Feed import controls	LAa	LAs	DAERA
Labelling	LAs	LAs	DAERA
Composition and standards	LAs	LAs	DAERA
Traceability	LAs	LAs	DAERA
Biotechnology – genetically modified feed	LAs	LAs	DAERA
Chemical safety – prohibited and undesirable substances	LAs	LAs	DAERA
Chemical safety -specified feed additives	VMD	VMD	DAERA
Veterinary medicines residues monitoring	VMD	VMD	VMD (DAERA oversees collection/analysis of samples)
Pesticide residues monitorin	HSE CRD	HSE CRD	DAERA (to be delegated to HSE CRD)
Medicated feed	VMD	VMD	DAERA
Animal protein in feed ban	APHA	APHA	DAERA