Joint Food and Safety Service Business Plan 2022 to 2024

Buckinghamshire Council is a newly formed unitary authority (as of 1 April 2020) comprising the legacy District Councils of Aylesbury Vale, Chiltern, South Bucks and Wycombe and Buckinghamshire County.

It covers an area of 1,874 km2 and has a population of approximately 546,000 (2019).

It is predominantly a rural area with towns and villages set in countryside, a large area of which forms part of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and part of the Greater London Green Belt. 31% of the area is designated as green belt.

The main towns in the north of the district are Aylesbury and Buckingham whilst in the south they are High Wycombe, Marlow, Amersham and Beaconsfield.

The county has good transport links with adjoining areas. There are good national and motorway networks and direct rail-links to central London or northwest via Aylesbury or High Wycombe and the Midlands, provided by Chiltern Railways, Great Western Railways and London Underground Ltd. There is significant development of future network links including HS2 and East-West Rail.

The council's Corporate Plan provides further information about Buckinghamshire's population and demographics.

During 2019 to 2020, Buckinghamshire local authorities underwent both political and structural changes following the government’s decision to create a unitary authority for Buckinghamshire. This has had significant implications on the way in which all services have and will be delivered and the incorporation of District and County functions into a single service. This took effect from 1 April 2020.

A new Housing and Regulatory Service was created that encompasses Environmental Health, Housing, Trading Standards and Registrars and Coroners Services. This service sits within the Planning, Growth and Sustainability Directorate. The senior management structure is comprised of a Chief Executive, corporate and service directors and heads of service. The Head of Environmental Health reports to the Director of Housing and Regulatory Services and has delegated powers to act on behalf of the council in relation to food and health and safety.

The Environmental Health service is divided into 3 specialist teams operating from council offices in High Wycombe, Amersham and Aylesbury:

• Commercial
• Housing and Domestic
• Strategic Environment

Food and health and safety is delivered by a specialist Commercial Team across geographical North and South areas.

As of the March 2022, the Commercial Team comprised of 10.2 full time equivalents, including 1 vacancy. This is made up of 13 ‘suitably qualified’ officers and 3 Regulatory Support Officers.

All food services are delivered by in house staff, except where food analytical services are used. Casual staff or contractors are occasionally used to support our work and help us manage variances in demand.

The structure of our Commercial Team is:

• Commercial Manager
  • Commercial Team Leader North
    • EHP/Food and Safety Officers (3)
    • Technical Enforcement Officer
  • Commercial Team Leader South
    • EHP/Food and Safety Officers (5)
    • Technical Enforcement Officers (2)

Dr Jill Morris is the appointed Consultant in Communicable Disease Control at United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) - Thames Valley and is the 'Proper Officer' for the Authority.

Our partners are:

• statutory organisations
• local authorities
• central government
• voluntary groups
• primary authority partners

Our customers are:

• local residents
• businesses
• trade and commerce organisations
• visitors to the area

Our stakeholders are:

• internal departments and staff
• council members
• community boards

The scope of the service is:

• the enforcement of legislation relating to safety, welfare and hygiene
• routine inspection and auditing of businesses in accordance with current Government requirements
• providing support, training and advice for food handlers and businesses, either free of charge or as part of a paid-for advice service
• participation in the Primary Authority Partnership scheme
• investigation of consumer complaints relating to food safety and hygiene
• investigation of employee and public complaints and requests for information relating to working environments and standards
• investigation of reportable accidents
• management of the Safety Advisory Groups in relation to public events and sports ground safety
• health education and promotional activities to educate the consumer
• investigation of sporadic cases and outbreaks of infectious disease within the District, in consultation with the Consultant in Communicable Disease Control
• drawing up and implementing appropriate contingency incident and outbreak control plans

In addition, our officers also:

• enforce the smoke-free provisions
• undertake the registration and inspection of businesses and operators carrying out skin piercing activities
• participate in the Safety Advisory Groups
• investigate cases of infectious disease
• issue sports ground certificates
• provide support to the Resilience Service, where necessary

The service is delivered from the Council offices in Aylesbury, Amersham and High Wycombe during normal office hours of 9am to 5.30pm.

It is recognised that businesses operate outside normal office hours of work and so the inspection programme will take this into account. Officers are therefore expected to work outside these hours when circumstances require. For example, for food poisoning investigations and accident investigations, where the nature of the business dictates evening or early morning visits and upon request by businesses.

As at 1 April 2022 there are 5,357 food premises requiring an intervention in the Buckinghamshire district ranging from international manufacturers to home caterers.

The number of premises falling into each risk category is given in the table below.

Classification of premises is in compliance with Food Standards Agency Code of Practice.

Category A businesses pose a greater risk than category E, either because of the nature of their operation or poor standards of hygiene.

Those premises within category E are subject to an alternative enforcement strategy which takes the form of a self-assessment questionnaire.

Non-rated businesses are those whose risk rating has not yet been assessed. The high number is a direct result of the COVID pandemic.

Premises outside the programme are those which presents so low a risk that it shouldn’t be included in the inspection programme. These will be reviewed during 2022 to 2023.

Currently officers are complying with the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) Recovery Roadmap and so the inspection intervals have been dropped and interventions have been focussed on those businesses that pose the greatest risk (such as category A and B and non-compliant category Cs and Ds), triaging new businesses and inspecting the higher risk new businesses.

In addition to meeting the requirements of the FSA Recovery Roadmap by 2023, more recently officers have been tasked to carry out home checks as part of the Homes for Ukraine Scheme whereby a sponsoring family homes a Ukrainian family for up to 6 months.

The home checks are to ensure that the host property is safe and appropriate for the arriving family. The government required local authorities to undertake these visits as staff from across the service were involved to ensure that there were not any unnecessary delays in the visa process.

Within the premises profile, there are 20 food businesses that are approved. Approved establishments are food premises that prepare and handle foods of animal origin for sale or supply to other businesses. These premises must meet additional legislative food safety requirements and will generally require greater officer resource than other food premises.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the service saw a significant increase in new food business registrations, particularly low risk home caterers. During 2021 to 2022, 927 new food business registrations were received.

We provide health export certificates to several manufacturers within the area to assist with the export of products of fish or plant origin to countries that require these to be accompanied by a certificate issued by the official food control authority, such as Buckinghamshire Council.

These often require bespoke certificates to meet the specific needs of the client and country receiving the products. Health certificates are provided for companies that have received an inspection or audit of the premises and this service is charged for.

The authority has a flexible approach to determining whether each consignment would need to be physically checked, based on existing records or the outcomes of previous official controls. With the UK’s exit from the European Union, this service is becoming an increasing demand on resources.

The inspection of businesses in terms of health and safety is in compliance with Health and Safety Executive/Local Authorities Enforcement Liaison Committee (HELA) Local Authority circular LAC 67/2 (rev11), for example a business will not be subject to any proactive interventions unless it comes within one of the priority subject areas or local intelligence suggests the need for a targeted intervention.

With the formation of the Buckinghamshire Council, the Environmental Health Service took on the responsibility for the issue of the General Safety Certificate for the Designated Sports Ground at Wycombe Wanderers Football Club.

In addition, the team has also taken on the administration of the registration for skin piercing establishments and operators and as part of this, will look to harmonise the registration process and fees from legacy areas and adopt a single set of byelaws covering safe and hygienic arrangements for skin piercing.

A generic enforcement policy covers the majority of the work performed by the service. However, a more specific enforcement policy has been developed and is detailed within the Food and Health and Safety Enforcement Policies, together with enforcement procedures that set out the actions to be taken when formal action is required.

Regard is given to the Regulators’ Code published by the Office for Product Safety and Standards, the Primary Authority Partnership Scheme and the council’s overarching enforcement policy.