Issue - meetings

Report ES16037

Karen Ryan (LBB Lead Practitioner-Food Safety ) and Paul Lehane (Head of Food Safety, Occupational Safety and Licensing) attended to present the report, and to answer any questions. The report had been written to update Members concerning the performance of the Food Safety Team for the year 2015-2016, and to seek approval from the Committee and the Portfolio Holder for the Food Safety Service Plan for 2016-2017.

Mr Lehane informed Members that a part time student who had been working for the Food Safety Team had received a contract extension to the end of August. A contractor had been employed to work for the Food Safety Team for 25 hours per week. The Health & Safety Team Staff member that had been very ill had now sadly passed away and after a review of the service needs, Mr Lehane decided to move the post to the Food Safety Team, increasing the resource available by 1 fte. Recruitment was taking place for a replacement, and interviews would be conducted on July 14th.

During 2015-2016, not all of the objectives had been achieved, but all of the Category A high risk inspections had been undertaken. Businesses that had started 2015/16 with a  zero rating, had all improved, and most were now compliant.

Mr Lehane outlined the main performance figures for 2015/16:

A total of 568 food hygiene inspections had been undertaken and 74% of food businesses were found to be broadly compliant at the time of inspection i.e. achieving three or more stars. A total of 148 revisits were undertaken and 256 complaints were investigated; 495 cases of suspected or confirmed food poisoning had been reported and investigated.

The aim for 2016/17 was to adopt a risk based approach, with an aim for 747 interventions. There were 115 high risk inspections to carry out, and 180 new businesses to inspect. The Chairman noted that the Food Safety Team required 11.91 full time employees, but were operating with just 4.34 FTE. The Chairman was concerned that the backlog of inspections due on ‘B&C’ rated premises was a cause of concern, and may put the public at risk. The Chairman stated that if spare funding was available for Public Protection in future budgets, she would like to see it allocated to the Food Safety Service.

Councillor Williams noted the £109K underspend and suggested that some of this be allocated to the Food Safety Service. He also referred to a 2 year wait experienced by a neighbour for a food safety inspection. Karen Ryan asked for the details so that she could investigate. She mentioned that if the business was a cake making business, these inspections were low priority, and were not currently being undertaken. Councillor Cartwright stated that as far as the underspend was concerned, it had to go into a pot of money and be looked at. It was not as simple as just grabbing hold of the money and allocating it to the Food Safety Service.

The Vice Chairman (Cllr  ...  view the full minutes text for item 78