Local inspectors fear centralised control

Environmental health officers and other local food safety professionals joined with various FSA Board members last month to voice their concerns about the potential dangers that centralised inspection control would cause to effective enforcement at a local level.

John Spence, FSA Board member for Wales, said: "It is right to review and consider options, but we must give equal weight to improving what we already have rather than dismantling the house of cards and starting again."

Another Board member, professor Sue Atkinson, agreed with these comments and added: "Local control and local engagement are also important." And Margaret Gilmore also suggested that changing to a more centralised approach carried a "high risk".

The review is being undertaken by the FSA in response to evidence that the existing complex and "inconsistent" delivery model is not entirely fit for purpose, as the FSA moves to a more risk-based approach to inspection.

The FSA executive believes a review is also needed to recognise declining resources at local authority level because of government funding cuts and uncertainty about good performance being sustained or poor performance improving among food businesses under the present arrangements.

It believes the experience from last year's transformation of the Meat Hygiene Service into its Operations Group, which features more centralised official controls delivery, improved levels of compliance, consistency and performance management, is a model worth looking at for delivery of controls to food businesses generally.

In the UK, 434 local authorities employing about 2,900 enforcement officers and over 600 administrative staff, at a cost of £190M are responsible for ensuring food safety compliance in over 560,000 premises. These are made up of approximately 400,000 catering and restaurant businesses; 130,000 retailers; 16,000 food manufacturers; and others.