Hart District Council

The authority had been reliant on contract staff to carry out a wide range of service delivery functions over the preceding three years. Staffing issues had severely limited the authority's capacity to deliver an effective food service in accordance with the Food Law Code of Practice and centrally issued guidance. However, the recent addition of an increased staff resource has resulted in improvements throughout the service.

The authority had produced a Food Law Enforcement Service Plan 2008/2009, which had been approved by members in April 2008. This was broadly in line with official guidance, but future service plans would benefit from the inclusion of the additional information as set out in the Service Planning Guidance in the Framework Agreement.

The service had a documented procedure to ensure that the food premises database was up-to-date and that information relating to inspections and other food law enforcement activities were accurate, although there was no evidence to show that this procedure has been followed. However, following the recent appointment of a principal officer, the food premises database had been thoroughly reviewed, involving the assessment of approximately 2,000 premises and related amendments to action codes.

File and database record checks on current inspection activity confirmed that the authority was beginning to implement an effective food premises inspection programme. Although the majority of premises inspections had been carried out by the contractors within the timescales set in the Code of Practice, there was little evidence of any follow-up action at unsatisfactory food businesses. Approved establishments files were found to be incomplete, with approval documents and inspection details missing.

The authority had not implemented a procedure for the authorisation of officers and this had contributed to officers being authorised for areas of work for which they lacked the required experience, competency and training. However, this was now being addressed through the development of a documented process for officer authorisations.

There was evidence of quantitative internal monitoring of food premises inspections against the annual programme, but no historical evidence of any qualitative monitoring across the full range of food safety service activities. Some recent changes had been introduced including the production of a revised internal monitoring procedure.