Elected Member Briefing - Food Standards Scotland Capacity and Capability Audit  

About this briefing note

Report by: Mark Butterworth, Head of Environment and Consumer Services   

Date: 17 February 2023 

Subject: Food Standards Scotland Capacity and Capability Audit   

Responsible Officer: Robert Lyle, Regulatory Services Manager, Communities 

Purpose

The purpose of this briefing note is to advise elected members of the findings of the recent Food Standards Scotland audit of food law delivery by the Council's Food Safety Team.  

Briefing information

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) recently audited Perth and Kinross Council's Food Safety delivery service delivered by the Regulatory Services Food Safety Team.  

The main aim of the audit scheme was to maintain and improve consumer protection and confidence by ensuring that local authorities are providing an effective food law enforcement service and to assess the Council's capacity and capability to deliver the food service. More specifically, this audit aimed to:  

• evaluate our organisational, management and information systems in place to ensure we are effective and suitable to achieve the objectives of the relevant food law.  
• assess the capacity and capability of the Local Authority to deliver the food service. 
• provide a means to identify under performance in Local Authority food law enforcement systems. 
• assist in the identification and dissemination of good practice to aid consistency. 
• provide information to aid the formulation of Food Standards Scotland policy. 

Whilst the audit made recommendations for improvement, the audit also found areas of good practice, which will be shared with other local authorities across Scotland. These were: -  

• The format and method of use of the Service Plan and associated Team Plan is an effective way to communicate the priorities and actions of the Local Authority; and   
• The use of an App on mobile telephones to capture and communicate outcomes direct to the Food Business Operator is an example of innovative and practical use of technology.  

The audit also made a number of findings, which included:   

• The Council has a comprehensive Service Delivery Plan.  
• Almost all the planned food interventions for 2021 - 2022 have been carried out. 
• The Council have a range of clearly laid out, well documented procedures however, some require to be updated.  
• A random sample of food businesses was selected for audit and found to be generally satisfactory with only minor observations.  
• When needed, the use of Remedial Action Notices has been applied correctly.  
• The team would benefit from additional capacity. The auditors estimate a resource gap of 4.9 FTE within the Food Safety Team.  

Elected Members can be reassured that the service being delivered by the Council's Food Safety Team is of high quality, that robust plans are in place and that the team has developed some areas of best practice, which will be shared across Scotland.