Food Premise Inspections. The Council follows the guidance given in The Food Safety Act 1990 Code of Practice in relation to food premises inspections. This gives consistency in the rating of premises for inspection as well as ensuring that performance against other authorities can be meaningful. The current composition of premises is shown below and intervention frequencies as defined in The Food Safety Act 1990 Code of Practise are shown for comparison. Category of Premise Number in District* Inspection/ Intervention Frequency Category A (High risk) 21 Twice a year Category B (Medium risk) 102 Yearly Category C (Low risk) 503 Every eighteen months Category D (Very low risk) 159 Every two years Category E (Very low risk) 296 Alternative enforcement strategy The number of premises has remained reasonably constant for several years and the staffing resources have been shown to be able to cope with the required inspection frequency when fully resourced. The staffing resource consists of three full time Environmental Health Officers. These together with the use of a contractor has in previous years allowed for the inspection of premises at the frequency specified in the Code of Practice to be achieved, as well as allowing for revisits to take place where formal written warnings have needed to be issued. The austerity measures introduced by the Council has resulted in reconsideration of how the Food Service is provided to determine if there is a more efficient method of operating whilst maintaining a suitable level of protection. The inspection regime is now proposed to be amended as follows A and B rated premises; to continue to undertake full inspections at the allocated frequency as determined by the Code of Practice. C rated premises; to undertake appropriate interventions as an inspection, partial inspection or audit until the premises is determined as broadly compliant and then the intervention may alternate between inspection, partial inspection or audit and other official controls for example monitoring, surveillance, verification or sampling. Undertaking these other official controls extends the efficiency of the section as they are less detailed interventions and therefore require less resource. Those C rated premises which form the highest part of the C banding are likely to receive full inspections at each intervention. D rated premises: to undertake interventions which alternate between official control interventions and interventions that are not official controls for exa...
