To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 19 February 2013.

The Democratic Services Officer circulated a list of minor typographical errors that had been identified in the draft minutes and recommended consequential amendments.  In addition to these, a further amendment was made to Minute 48 (Communication with the Audit and Governance Committee) as follows:

Page 3, paragraph 5: …Referring to the Hereford Futures Governance Update received by the General Overview and Scrutiny Committee (minute 27 of 14 January 2013 refers), a Committee Member commented that the Audit and Governance Committee should receive reports about the governance of related parties. 

In respect of Minute 47 (Annual Audit Fee Letter), the Committee noted that it was a standard and generally accepted local authority practice to pay the external auditors, Grant Thornton, for their work in advance, rather than in arrears. 

Further to Minute 49 (Internal Audit Progress 2012/13), the Chairman invited the Head of Consumer and Business Protection to provide a brief overview of measures undertaken and work planned in response to the audit report on Food Licensing.  The principal points of the presentation and the discussion included:

1.            The Head of Consumer and Business Protection explained the recent changes to the system relating to inspections of registered food premises, which were the responsibility of the Council’s Environmental Health Commercial Team.  The previous system, which allocated food hygiene star ratings to premises either selling, preparing or manufacturing food products, had been replaced by a more stringent scoring system whereby premises were given a rating of between 0 and 5, with 3 being the minimum acceptable standard.  The new system was known as the Food Hygiene Rating System. 

2.            A key area of concern emerging from the audit had been the number of food hygiene assessments undertaken as part of the inspection programme, which had fallen below that advised by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) code of practice.  The main reason for this had been identified as an insufficient resource with which to carry out the inspections.  Standing at approximately 2,600 premises, Herefordshire had a comparatively high number of licensed food premises.  These factors had resulted in a programme of less frequent food inspections, which would necessitate endorsement by the Regulatory Committee.  The Regulatory Committee would receive a report on the matter at its meeting on 21 May 2013, when it would be asked to approve the reduced inspection programme. 

3.            The Committee noted that, although the Council had been an early adopter of the excellent previous food hygiene rating system, nationally it had been rejected in favour of the Food Hygiene Rating System.  This meant that the Council was having to cover additional ground in order to be once more in-step, nationally. 

4.            In response to a question from a Committee member, the Head of Consumer and Business Protection confirmed that the Commercial Team had been involved in inspections relating to the recent national discoveries of horse meat in food products. 

5.            The Head of Consumer and Business Protection was asked to confirm the number of notifications that had been received in relation to food poisoning outbreaks.  He said that they were minimal, although adding that in reality, one single outbreak had the potential for devastating or substantial effects.  He said that he would provide the precise figures to members after the meeting. 

6.            The Head of Consumer and Business Protection would present a full report to the Audit and Governance Committee at its next meeting on 16 April 2013, which would address any outstanding concerns, and outline the work undertaken to increase the assurance rating for the service to “substantial”.  The Committee thanked him for his presentation. 

RESOLVED:  That, subject to the above amendments, the minutes of the meeting held on 19 February 2013 be approved as a correct record and be signed by the Chairman.