Quality of local authority monitoring data on food law enforcement

Monday 28 June 2004

This paper sets out the action taken to improve the quality of data submitted by local authorities for monitoring purposes.

Since the introduction of the Framework Agreement on Local Authority Food Law Enforcement in April 2001 local authorities have had to provide more data than previously to meet European Commission requirements. This meant the monitoring form was very large, and time consuming to complete. We have proposed, therefore, to reduce the returns to a minimum, which would remove around 20 pages of the current 43-page monitoring return.

We currently have five returns to the Agency a year although we only process the data when we have a full year of returns. We have proposed to local authorities that they send in returns just twice a year, one in December, because the Commission work, to calendar years, and a smaller return in April, based on the financial year which is the local authority preferred reporting period. The latter is the inspection data, based on a financial year inspection programme.

One of the key problems experienced by local authorities is the difficulties they have in reconciling their declared inspection programmes at the beginning of the year with the actual programmes that they carried out. The main problem is that businesses open and close during the year and also change their risk categories due to conditions in the premises either improving or deteriorating. We have therefore proposed to give local authorities the opportunity to submit an amended programme with their inspection figures with the tracked changes identified, which we have agreed with LAs is a better measure.

Because we have proposed that these changes take place with immediate effect we have given LAs the option to submit data manually where their IT systems will not cope–this is ahead of a long-term project to replace the existing system completely.