A review of the Food Law Rating System in Scotland that combined food hygiene and food standards inspections has been published.
Food Standards Scotland (FSS) commissioned IFF Research to conduct an evaluation of the Food Law Rating System (FLRS).
Most local authorities and stakeholders agree with the thinking behind the FLRS and believe it to be a logical thing to do.
However, they identified that the increased frequency of visits under the FLRS compared to the previous system was presenting a more significant issue. A widely expressed view was that the resource intensity of the FLRS was far in excess of what was anticipated when the system was designed.
The increased resource intensity has been a major challenge for local authorities in implementing the FLRS. It comes against a backdrop of existing staff shortages in the sector, backlogs of work created by the Covid-19 pandemic and challenging conditions for food businesses creating more work for officers.
The impact of the FLRS demanding more resource than is available is that it is not currently working as intended – backlogs are building up and few are confident that they will be able to keep up with the frequency of visits outlined by the performance ladder. Many feared that because of this there could be a reduction in compliance levels among medium-risk businesses and those who are currently broadly compliant, due to a lack of scrutiny.
It is clear, in these circumstances, that a review of the inspection frequencies outlined in the performance ladder is needed – and some would also like to see amendments made to the bandings used to categorise certain types of businesses. In addition, looking at how FHIS and FLRS might fit together was felt to be worthwhile.
The FLRS was introduced in Scotland as part of the Interventions Food Law Code of Practice (Scotland) 2019. The FLRS combines the rating systems for food hygiene and food standards by which food businesses and food producers are assessed into one regime based upon a new Food Business Performance Model.
This evaluation set out to understand if the FLRS has achieved what it was designed to deliver and to uncover lessons learned, with a view to informing future development of the food law enforcement delivery model.
Qualitative interviews took place with authorised food officers in all 32 Scottish local authorities and 8 stakeholders (including current and former FSS staff as well as representatives of industry and professional bodies).
