Local authority reveals scale of food hygiene backlog

Richard Youle, Local Democracy Reporter

Details of food hygiene inspection backlogs faced by a council struggling to recruit qualified staff have been disclosed.

Carmarthenshire Council has 2,280 food premises on its schedule including restaurants, cafes, pubs, takeaways, care homes, schools, hospitals and manufacturers.

A council scrutiny committee heard last month the council probably wouldn’t meet targets relating to what were termed hygiene and standards interventions for high-risk food businesses, and that it was offering £60 to £70 per hour to recruit qualified staff through agencies but still found it difficult because such staff were in high demand.

Ian Jones, the council’s head of leisure and public protection, said despite a lot of professionalism and expertise within the service it was “highly unlikely” that the end-of-year targets would be met.

Councillors were told other authorities were in a similar position. Cllr Colin Evans felt the situation was “quite serious” and added: “Should something go wrong it could go wrong very quickly.” The committee referred the matter to cabinet for consideration.

Following the meeting the Local Democracy Reporting Service asked the council what its hygiene inspection backlog was, how many of those were highest-risk food businesses, and how often business were inspected.

The council said food premises had a risk category from A to E, with category A, B and C ones considered high risk by virtue of food handling activities that took place.

It said there were three highest-risk category A premises with overdue hygiene inspections in the county – two of them within a 28-day overdue period, and the third subject to an “ongoing presence from inspectors” since the previous intervention.

There were also two category B premises and 228 category C premises with overdue inspections, and 467 overdue hygiene inspections for category D and E establishments.

The council said inspection frequencies depended on the risk category but varied between “at least every six months to at least every 36 months”.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service told the council it appeared a particular premises in the north of the county hadn’t had a food hygiene inspection since 2019, according to the Scores on the Doors website.

The council replied with further information, including that inspectors carried out other work such as food standards visits as well as hygiene ones.

It said the average backlog time-wise for hygiene inspections was 16 months for category C premises, 35 months for category D and 38 months for category E.

And it said 405 of the 467 category D and E premises with an overdue inspection were eligible for what were called alternative enforcement surveys.

The council didn’t say what these surveys were, but other authorities which use them say they’re a self-assessment questionnaire for eligible low risk premises that help determine whether an inspection was needed.

Carmarthenshire Council said it had a statutory duty to enforce food law and to discharge that duty “as effectively as possible using means that are most appropriate to the circumstances”.

Hospitality trade group UKHospitality said it worked closely with regulator the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and published hygiene guidance to help food businesses.

Top rating

A UKHospitality spokeswoman said: “The most recent FSA data shows 76.6% of food businesses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland achieved a top rating of 5 for hygiene, and overall 96.9% of businesses scored satisfactory or above. Even where there are re-inspection challenges, this shows the sector demonstrates very high compliance.

“Despite the pressures the sector has faced in recent years, the safety of our customers remains non-negotiable and food hygiene is a major focus for businesses – alongside work on allergens and food crime.”

The FSA’s head of delivery Sarah Aza said last month there weren’t enough trained food safety officers coming though in the UK and that it was liaising with Governments and others to increase the workforce.

She said councils were making good progress on food safety and standards checks but that a rise in new businesses was increasing the workload.

She added: “If a local authority is concerned about meeting its legal inspection duties, we ask them to get in touch with us early.”