Delivery models for Food Hygiene Inspections within the changing UK regulatory framework (50m Lecture)

The current landscape of Regulatory enforcement within the UK is currently going through significant change as a result of the UK’s response to the economic challenges it faces, as the current coalition Government attempts to reduce the financial deficient and rebalance the UK economy towards one that is less dependant on the state and public sector and the expansion of the private sector to take up the slack in the delivery of some services as well as the adoption by larger businesses of “earned autonomy” and potentially no longer part of an inspection regime.
 
* Statistics produced by the FSA show a decline in the number of full time food officers from 2,870 in 2010/11 to 2,003 in 2011/12
* As of March 2012 there were 600,000 food businesses registered within the UK and of these 3700 (6.1%) had not been inspected and hence not awarded a risk rating, compared with 5.8% the previous year.
* The number of interventions, which include: inspections, audits and surveillance fell by 4.4% during 2012. * Spending on local authority regulatory services has fallen by 32% since 2009.


The purpose of this session is to examine both the historical nature of the changes taking place and the goal is to quantifiably describe the challenges currently facing the environmental health profession with particular reference to Wales. In addition, this session will also bring together the literature reviewing current inspection models undertaken in the UK and an additional goal will be to evaluate how enforcement agencies have had to adapt traditional approaches of food hygiene inspections and devise more imaginative and targeted ways of ensuring consumers are not exposed to greater risk of food related illnesses.
The experiences currently being experienced by the UK are not unique and by adopting a “think-pair share” approach, delegates will be encouraged in the session, to share their own particular knowledge of the dilemma faced by regulatory agencies, thereby providing a much needed overview of the scale of the task that is currently being faced across a range of differing contexts.