Glasgow (Core Audit)

Glasgow City Council is a Scottish Unitary Local Authority and therefore has responsibility for enforcing food hygiene, food standards and feeding stuffs law in the City of Glasgow.

Approximately 5,000 businesses in the Authority’s area are subject to food law enforcement. There are also two registered establishments subject to feeding stuffs legislation.

The Authority has a 2006-2007 Food and Feeding Stuffs Service Delivery Plan covering food hygiene, food standards and feeding stuffs law enforcement that generally meets the requirements of the Service Planning Guidance in the Framework Agreement. However, the 2006-2007 Service Plan had not been submitted for appropriate Member approval at the time of the audit.

The Authority has appointed suitably qualified authorised officers and inspectors to enforce food and feeding stuffs law, although training records for some food law enforcement officers did not demonstrate that they were meeting continuing development training requirements of the Code of Practice.

Inspections of some food businesses are not being conducted according to the risk rating schemes in the Code of Practice, including inspections of some businesses in the highest risk categories.

Records of inspections and other food and feeding stuffs enforcement activities are generally well documented and sufficiently detailed to demonstrate that inspections have assessed compliance with all aspects of relevant legislation in accordance with the Code of Practice and/or centrally issued guidance.

Records of some food businesses that are subject to EC Regulation 852/2004 do not include a premises profile, and some that are subject to EC Regulation 853/2004 do not include a synopsis of the business, or sufficient detail regarding the current operations carried out.

Sampling programmes for food and feeding stuffs have been developed and implemented, and adverse food and feeding stuffs sample results are generally being followed-up appropriately.

Officers use a range of informal and formal enforcement options to secure compliance, including letters, voluntary surrenders of food for destruction, and hygiene improvement notices.

The Authority’s electronic database was generally an up to date, accurate record of the Authority’s food and feeding stuffs law enforcement activities, although some anomalies that were revealed during the audit need to be addressed.

Service performance is being monitored in accordance with the Code of Practice, centrally issued guidance, and the Authority’s own documented procedures.