Move to self-regulate could reduce factory safety visits

Food firms may be allowed to self-certify their safety procedures to cut regulation

The government looks set to approve a trial of self-reporting by food and drink firms for most factory regulations, including health and safety and food safety.

Self-reporting would allow regulators to concentrate on firms that are seen as presenting the greatest risks of breaching regulations. The move is likely to be strongly opposed by trade unions and safety organisations.

The initiative is intended to lead to hundreds of millions of pounds of savings by cutting the volume of regulation and the number of inspection visits to food factories and retailers. Firms opting into the system would let independent safety inspectors and assurance companies pass information about the clients' operations, including breaches of regulations, to regulators.

David Edwards, director of assurance consultancy CMi, which is pushing for self-regulation, said a suitable basis for the approach could be the British Retail Consortium standard, which is widely used in the food and drink sector. Self-regulation could be introduced quickly, he said.

The potential move to self-reporting follows what Edwards called a frank exchange of views at a recent meeting involving senior people in organisations that included the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the government's Better Regulation Executive, Lacors, which represents local authority regulators, as well as retailers and caterers. All parties, including the FSA and Lacors, supported the approach and agreed to collaborate, claimed Edwards: "The thing that is holding this up is trust."

CMi is expected to propose a trial to the DTI within a couple of months. That would involve a small number of food and drink firms and could last six to 12 months. Several firms have expressed an interest in taking part, said Edwards.

A DTI-backed trial of a similar approach is already under way in the local authorities of Warwickshire and Bexley. Graham Jukes, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH), said that his organisation broadly supported the idea of targeted inspections.

However, he added: "We do have some concerns about a multi-inspection system. It's not an easy job to go in and inspect a business." He expected the government to reveal more on the pilots at the CIEH annual meeting in September.

Opponents are expected to see self-regulation as little more than a cost-cutting exercise leading to the under-funding of regulators, with risks to both workers and consumers. "This sounds a recipe for disaster," said Chris Kaufman, national secretary for food and agriculture at the Transport & General Workers' Union.

"All the indications are that leaving policing to the potential transgressors is an invitation to anarchy," said Kaufman.