Larne

The Council had arrangements in place to ensure that its premises database was kept up-to-date and in general the information held on the database was found to be accurate and complete.

The computerised database system used by the Council was capable of providing all of the information required by the Agency monitoring returns. In general the Council�s monitoring returns were found to be accurate and all enforcement actions had been correctly reported. However, the coding structure for enforcement activities, that had been used, did not differentiate between planned and unplanned inspections and this appeared to be a contributory factor to inaccuracies in the returns in respect of planned inspections achieved.

Officers responsible for managing the database and compiling monitoring returns had taken steps to verify the accuracy of the information held on the database and to validate the data submitted to the Agency. There was evidence that these checks had identified errors in premises profiles and inspection data generated automatically from the database and that the Council had corrected the data and taken steps to resolve these issues.

All officers had access to the database to input and amend data relating to enforcement activities and only minor inaccuracies in the data entered onto the database were noted.

There was evidence that premises were not being risk assessed in full accordance with the risk rating schemes for food hygiene and food standards in the relevant Codes of Practice.

Arrangements were in place to ensure that the database was backed up regularly and protected from loss of information. Access to the database was password protected to prevent corruption of the data in relation to the entry and deletion of premises.