Issue details
To defer food standards, food hygiene and feed hygiene visits from 20 March until 17 April 2020
The Food Standards Agency has sent a
communication to all authorities after obtaining approval from the
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health, Jo Churchill, to
permit deviations from the direction given to local authorities in
the Food Law Code of Practice (England) and the Feed Law Code of
Practice (England) – the Codes.
Deferral of planned interventions
Until 17 April 2020, all planned feed, food hygiene and food
standards interventions should be deferred. This will ensure that
footfall in feed/food business establishments is kept to a minimum
and will enable local authorities to divert potentially diminished
resources to urgent reactive work – see below - and to other
wider public health actions required locally during the COVID-19
pandemic. Our direction on this is in line with Section 5.3.6 of
the Food Law Code of Practice (England) and Section 5.3.9 of the
Feed Law Code of Practice (England). We will notify you if the
position changes before 17 April and, at any rate, will update you
on what the position will be post 17 April.
Local authorities should also defer any requested FHRS
re-inspections.
When it is feasible to resume planned inspections, it will be
important to apply a risk based approach to outstanding inspections
prioritising the highest risk establishments.
Decision type: Non-key
Decision status: Recommendations Approved
Notice of proposed decision first published: 15/05/2020
Decision due: 15 May 2020 by Director of Economy and Place (Historic)
Contact: Richard Ball, Director for economy and place Email: rball@herefordshire.gov.uk Tel: 01432260965.
Decisions