Review of the Food Law Code of Practice (Northern Ireland)

This consultation seeks views on:

• the proposals to update the current Code of Practice (CoP) on Food Law Enforcement by District Councils, for Northern Ireland, under Article 39 of the Food Safety (NI) Order 1991
• one proposed change to the new monitoring system

The proposed changes aim to replace the current enforcement policy focused primarily on inspections, with a new policy for a suite of interventions. This will allow district councils to choose the most appropriate action to be taken to drive up levels of compliance by food establishments with food law. This takes account of the recommendations in 'Reducing Administrative Burdens: effective inspection and enforcement' report by Philip Hampton, published March 2005.

As district councils in Northern Ireland must have regard to this statutory code when engaged in the enforcement of food law, it is necessary to update the current code to reflect these recommendations.

There should be a clear division between what district councils must do in enforcing food law, which must be included in the statutory code, and other advice which can be published as practice guidance.

A similar consultation is currently taking place in England and consultations are scheduled to take place in Scotland and Wales.

Main changes
The most significant proposed change to the CoP is the development of a suite of interventions including inspections, to maintain or improve the compliance of food establishments with Food Law. This will bring UK policy into line with the specification of Regulation (EC) 882/2004 on Official Controls. Please see section 4.1/chapters 4.3.1 to 4.3.6 of the draft code.

The Agency proposes moving establishments requiring approval under Regulation (EC) 853/2004 into the risk assessment system as detailed in Annex 5 of the CoP. This is likely to reduce the frequency of interventions at these premises. Please see section 4.3 chapters 4.3.1 to 4.3.6 of the draft code.

There are proposed amendments to section 3.7, on quick frozen foodstuffs.

It is also proposed to reduce the amount of information the establishment is required to provide when registering a new food business establishment; with a view to reducing the administration burden placed on new businesses. We would like your views on whether this would reduce the administration burden on businesses whilst still protecting public health. Please see Annex 8 of the draft code.

The code has, in general, been updated to reflect the change in the terminology used when dealing with inspections and interventions.

The code has also been amended to include the use of permanent transport authorisation in relation to live bivalve molluscs and a new annex containing a fishing vessel hygiene checklist. please see page 118 and annex 10 (page 177)

Interventions and monitoring
It is proposed to make one change to the plans for the new monitoring system, which were the subject of a consultation exercise between July and October 2006 last year. The planned outcome measure is to be the proportion of premises deemed to be 'broadly compliant' with food law. The assessment of 'broadly compliant' is to be based on:

• or food hygiene, the risk rating scores for compliance with hygiene requirements, compliance with structural requirements and confidence in management
• for food standards, under the FSA risk rating system, the risk rating scores for confidence in management/control systems, and for level of (current) compliance
• for food standards, under the Local Authorities Coordinating Office on Regulatory Services (LACORS) risk rating system, the score for confidence in the business's control system in the local element of the risk rating

In 2006, the Agency proposed that the assessment be based on the cumulative score for these factors, set at levels of 30, 20 and 10 respectively. Having reconsidered matters, and taken account of the comments received on the 2006 consultation, we now propose that each of these named risk rating factors be assessed separately, with no more than 10 points being permitted in each case for a premises to be deemed 'broadly compliant'. This will avoid the risk of a high score for one factor being 'masked' by low scores elsewhere.

The proposals for a suite of interventions follows from, and builds on, the proposals for a new monitoring system for local authority food law enforcement (LAEM's), on which detailed proposals were issued for public consultation on 31 July last year.

The table at annex H shows how we propose that interventions are to be grouped together for recording and monitoring purposes.

What happens next?
The proposed policy changes will be considered further, in the light of responses to this consultation, in autumn 2007. We plan to finalise a revised code for submission to Ministers for approval by February 2008, and for that revised code to take effect from 1 April 2008.

The new monitoring system is also planned for implementation from 1 April 2008.

The Agency is now drawing up proposals for training sessions, on both the new code and the new monitoring system, for district council colleagues. These are to be held during the months of January to April 2008.

The changes currently proposed are the first stage of a two stage process, which includes restricted but significant changes made to compliment the introduction of the new LAEM's monitoring system. A second stage to address more wide ranging changes to the COP will be undertaken in 2008.

This consultation has been prepared in accordance with the HM Government Code of Practice on Consultation, which states that a consultation must follow better regulation best practice, including carrying out an Impact Assessment (Regulatory Impact Assessment in Scotland). The assessment is included in the consultation documents.

We are interested in what you thought of this consultation and would therefore welcome your general feedback on both the consultation package and overall consultation process. If you would like to assist us to improve the quality of future consultations, please feel free to share your thoughts with us by using the consultation feedback questionnaire.

Consultation feedback questionnaire (Word)

Consultation feedback questionnaire (pdf)

In accordance with the FSA principle of openness our Information Centre at Aviation House will hold a copy of the completed consultation. Responses will be open to public access upon request. The FSA will also publish a summary of responses, which may include personal data, such as your full name and contact address details. If you do not want this information to be released, please complete and return the Publication of Personal Data Form. Return of this form does not mean that we will treat your response to the consultation as confidential, just your personal data.

Data protection form (Word)

Data protection form (pdf)

Within three months of a consultation ending we aim to publish a summary of responses received and provide a link to it from this page.

If, after three months, the summary is still not showing, please contact the person who was responsible for the original consultation. Alternatively, you can contact Judith Taylor, the FSA Consultation Co-ordinator, on 020 7276 8633.
Email: judith.taylor@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk