Report on Local Authority Food Law Enforcement Published by FSA

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has just published official statistics on food law enforcement by local authorities for the year ending March 2019.

The information provided by local authorities and compiled by the FSA, gives a detailed breakdown of enforcement activity across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The FSA have commented on the new data as follows:

• the percentage of food establishments that are ‘broadly compliant’ with food hygiene law – this means their standards are equivalent to a food hygiene rating of 3, 4 or 5 - increased slightly to 90.7% from 90.2% in the previous year.
• the percentage of planned food hygiene interventions undertaken by local authorities increased to 86.3% in total compared with 85.1% in 2017/18. 
• for food standards controls, which covers authenticity and food fraud, the percentage of planned interventions undertaken decreased to 40.8% in total from 42.3% the previous year.
• the percentage of food establishments not yet risk rated fell to 4.8% compared with 5.1% the previous year.
• the total number of reported official samples taken was 43,768, a decrease of 3.2% from the previous year.
• there was a marginal increase in staffing levels in professional posts of 0.6% compared with the previous year.
• for food hygiene, the picture overall in the three countries does differ somewhat –some small but positive trends seen in England were not reflected in Wales and Northern Ireland.

Maria Jennings, Director of Regulatory Compliance at the FSA, said:

'It is good to see an increase in the total percentage of planned hygiene interventions that local authorities are carrying out and an increase in premises with standards equivalent to a food hygiene rating of 3, 4 and 5.  It remains concerning that there has been another decrease this year in the percentage of planned food standards interventions undertaken.                                                                                                    

To address this long standing issue, we are working closely with local authorities to develop a new sustainable model for food standards interventions which will include a mix of inspections and the use of better intelligence and surveillance”.

The full report and data can be found here:

Should you find your Licensed Premises the subject of a Food Safety Prosecution, contact  our specialist team of Solicitors for advice on 0114 266 8664.