Regulation Action Plan Commitments Update

1. Summary

1.1 This paper provides a final update on the FSA’s successful delivery of our commitments in the Chancellor’s Regulation Action Plan, published in March 2025.

2. Evidence and Discussion

2.1 The FSA has engaged enthusiastically with the government’s Regulation for Growth work.  All our commitments within the Regulation Action Plan have been delivered, alongside our additional innovation work funded by DSIT.  We have: 

• Implemented new approaches to local authority food standards regulation (April 2025) and food hygiene regulation (October 2025) to make inspections more risk-based and proportionate.

• Been formally designated as competent authority for recycled plastics in Great Britain and completed the first audits.  This supports exports by enabling UK businesses to meet EU requirements for food grade recycled plastics.

• Supported six inward trade audits from the European Union, South Korea and the USA in 2025 to facilitate the UK’s international trade in food and drink.

• Published the UK’s first safety guidance for cell cultivated products (CCPs) via our regulatory sandbox programme (December 2025), increasing regulatory clarity for innovators and supporting investment in a sector which could contribute up to £2.1 billion to the UK economy by 2030. 

2.2 Further details for each individual commitment are set out below.

Commitment 1: roll out a new approach to food standards inspections across all local authorities in England by spring 2025 and consult on new approaches to food hygiene controls by June 2025

2.3 As we reported to the Committee in September, the new Food Standards Delivery Model has been in force since 1 April 2025.

2.4 Following the hygiene statutory consultation, which closed on 19 May with responses published on 19 August, the revised Food Law Code of Practice was laid in Parliament in October 2025 so is now in place.  We have issued subsequent guidance and training to Local Authorities (LAs) and continue to make ongoing support available.  We have undertaken an LA burdens assessment, and we are currently working with MHCLG to disburse burden payments.

2.5 Above and beyond our Action Plan commitments, we have continued working with the main IT providers and LAs to support management information system (MIS) providers in updating their software.  This has been delayed for some LAs due to MIS development timescales.  However, this does not preclude LAs from delivering Official Controls in line with the new arrangements whilst they await MIS updates.  FSA officials wrote to LAs in December confirming reporting expectations and the Chief Executive wrote to all LA counterparts stressing the importance of working with their MIS providers to adopt the new model.  We will take appropriate performance management action for LAs failing to adopt the new model, if required.

Commitment 2: support UK businesses in meeting EU regulatory requirements for food grade recycled plastic, by taking on a new role as the competent authority

2.6 Following our designation as the competent authority, FSA has carried out two individual audits of plastic recycling facilities on 25 November 2025 and 16 December 2025.

2.7 On 30 January, we submitted the first set of audit reports to the European Commission.  We are now preparing the next submission, which will cover the audit carried out in December 2025.

2.8 Next steps: Two GB-based audits are scheduled for March 2026.  We are also working closely with colleagues in Northern Ireland as they support district councils in preparing for the audit of two plastic recyclers there.

Commitment 3: prioritising our work on trade to conduct six inward audits in 2025 in order to facilitate trade in food and drink

2.9 This commitment relates to the calendar year 2025, and so our reporting here varies from the calendar-year reporting in the Business Committee Performance Report.

2.10 Following on from the two audits we supported in June 2025 (reported in our September update), we have now provided responses to both.

2.11 Further audits we supported in 2025:

• 8 to 17 September - South Korean pork and poultry audit.  South Korea has now listed the new applicant exporters and re-approved previously approved exporters.

• 29 September to 3 October and 13 to 21 October - EU audit of GB controls on fish products.

• 24 November to 5 December - EU audit of GB controls on poultry meat.

2.12 Next steps: Our post-audit activities (response to and implementation of audit findings and recommendations) for the EU audits carried out October-December are expected to take place from March/April, once we have received the reports.  Dates are dependent on Defra as the lead department for trade audits.

2.13 Beyond the six audits we committed to under the Regulation Action Plan, from 23 January to 10 February, we supported an EU audit of GB controls on beef, and we now have plans to support an upcoming inward inspection from China on UK controls on live aquatics between 23 to 30 March (dates may be subject to change beyond FSA control).

Commitment 4: establish a regulatory sandbox for cell cultivated products (CCPs) and publish our first wave of bespoke guidance to provide industry with essential clarity on safety and legal requirements to enable these products to be considered for sale.

2.14 During 2025, we have held five meetings with the cross-government network we established to coordinate collective decisions about regulatory issues relation to CCPs.

2.15 Since establishing the Advisory Network of International Regulators (ANIR), we have held five meetings during 2025, in order to use their learning to speed up our assessments.

2.16 These activities, along with the FSA-led workshops with sandbox participants and the dedicated CCP subgroup of the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (which met for the first time in June 2025), have enabled us to publish our first wave of bespoke guidance in December 2025, covering the classification of CCPs as Products of Animal Origin, and providing bespoke technical allergenicity and nutrition guidance.  Additional pieces of bespoke guidance will be issued throughout the programme.

2.17 Alongside the sandbox, we continue to work closely with the UK government and industry on the implications of any SPS agreement.  For more detailed discussion of this and the progress of the sandbox, please see further details in the separate paper from the CCP Team provided to the Business Committee.

2.18 Next steps: The CCP programme will continue until February 2027.

3. Conclusions

3.1 We remain committed to supporting the government’s work to improve regulation.  We remain clear that the best way in which the FSA can support economic growth is to do our job as a food safety and standards regulator as effectively and efficiently as possible.  However, the FSA’s capacity is limited given the current work to support SPS agreement negotiations and the likely substantial programme of work needed for implementation.  The FSA’s most significant contribution to economic growth in the next 18 months must be our work to support the successful negotiation, design and implementation of this agreement.

3.2 We will continue to work across government to support the government’s growth agenda, providing updates to DHSC, DBT and HMT.  We will report any further details as necessary to the FSA Business Committee.