Council tackles food hygiene after report rap

A COUNCIL will spend £70,000 on employing more staff to tackle food hygiene issues after being criticised by the government’s standards agency.

Later today, Gwynedd council is set to approve plans to create two new posts within its food law enforcement service after admitting a lack of staff means inspections are not being carried out often enough.

As of June 2018, the service had a backlog of 76 food standards inspections and 220 food hygiene inspections yet to be carried out.

This is in response to a critical audit report by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) which raised concerns over the council’s ability to deliver in respect of food hygiene and standards, blaming dwindling staff numbers as part of ongoing cuts.

The letter, sent by the FSA to Gwynedd chief executive Dilwyn Williams said: “During the visit it was noted that the financial and staffing resources allocated to the service has been reduced.

“This reduction in resource is likely to have a significant impact on the authority’s ability to meet its statutory obligations set-out in the Food Law Code of Practice or to fulfil its duties under the Food Hygiene Rating (Wales) Act 2013.”

Responding to the FSA’s findings, the cabinet report concedes that as result of a lack of resources, interventions and inspections for Gwynedd food businesses are not being carried out on a frequent enough basis.

“Despite the efforts to mitigate the side-effects of staff cuts, it is likely that the greatest impact of recent cuts has been seen during 2017/18,” the report notes.