Bromsgrove District Council

The food law enforcement service had undergone an unsettled period of management since the end of 2006 as there was no team leader effectively in post until the beginning of 2008 when a new manager was appointed. The auditors were advised that this had impacted on the Service’s general performance in the intervening period.

The authority had a Food Service Plan for 2008/2009 which was broadly in line with the service planning guidance in the Framework Agreement on Food Law Enforcement. Future service planning could benefit from the inclusion of all aspects of the service planning guidance, including the requirement to review the previous year’s planned performance. In addition there was no evidence that the service plan had been submitted for member approval.

The authority acknowledged that there were problems with the food premises database and the ability of the service to produce reliable management reports. These problems prevented the collation of reliable information for internal operational and management purposes, and required significant and time consuming manual data checks before the submission of statistical monitoring data to the Agency to ensure the information was accurate and complete. The operation of the database also impeded the ability of the commercial team leader to carry out effective qualitative and quantitative monitoring of officers’ activities. The authority was in the process of transition to a new database system as part of a wider corporate initiative. It was recognised that there was a need to ensure the accuracy of information transferred over to the new database so as not to perpetuate problems identified with the existing system.

Due to the difficulties in producing verifiable information on inspection activity from the database, it was not possible to confirm that inspection frequencies were being met by the authority, although checks on file and database records indicated that inspections of higher risk premises were generally being carried out at the correct frequency required by the Food Law Code of Practice. Records confirmed that officers were carrying out comprehensive inspections and providing detailed records of findings. Inspection procedures and the aide-memoire used to record the details of inspections required updating to reflect current legislation, centrally issued guidance and internal authority policy.

The authority had a procedure for the authorisation of officers based on a competency assessment. This required further development to provide more detail on the basis upon which individual officers are appropriately authorised in relation to their ability, qualifications, experience and responsibilities. Furthermore, the officers’ schedules of authorisation were generic in nature and did not reflect the assessment of competence carried out on each individual officer.

An internal monitoring procedure had been produced, although this required review to reflect current and intended procedures for both qualitative and quantitative monitoring. There had been limited monitoring activity in place during the time that the team leader post was vacant and, although internal monitoring had begun to be implemented by the new manager, this needed to be expanded to cover all areas of food law enforcement activity.