Joint Food and Health and Safety Service Plan 2026 to 2027

The Environmental Health Service has a significant role to play in improving quality of life within Buckinghamshire, predominantly through providing a proactive, accessible and efficient service that protects and promotes the health of those who work, live and visit the area.

Progress is being made to integrate the previous district council’s legacy information management systems in order to streamline the allocation and management of casework and management reporting. This is expected to be completed this year. The next phase will allow for improved monitoring and back-office processes.

In addition, our service priorities continue to be the following:

• to ensure a consistent approach to interventions and enforcement across the service
• to authorise officers according to their competencies and qualifications in line with the FSA Competency Standard
• to participate in the cross-authority liaison groups and to carry out targeted food safety and health and safety interventions at large events such as the F1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone
• to ensure that the General Safety Certificate for Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is issued at the start of the 2026/27 football season and monitor compliance
• to manage and maintain the existing partnership relationships with larger national companies as part of the Primary Authority Partnership Scheme
• to manage the efficient and timely issuing of export health certificates for local businesses to facilitate international trade
• to participate in the UKHSA food sampling programme based on local and national priorities
• to undertake topic-based projects relating to health and safety based on local intelligence and national priorities
• to provide informed and helpful advice to businesses and the public alike on matters relating to food and health and safety
• to ensure that interventions are carried out commensurate with the principles of risk, at food premises within the district, ensuring compliance with the relevant food laws
• to ensure food complaints are investigated as appropriate
• to act on food safety alerts promptly and in a manner that is proportionate to the risks involved

As part of the authority’s key objectives, service standards and performance measures have been set.

Services are prioritised and resources targeted at issues of greatest concern in terms of food and health and safety. The service covers inspections of businesses, complaint and accident investigation and developing schemes to assist and motivate businesses to achieve compliance and good practice. The key performance measures used are:

• ‘Number of new registered food businesses that are trading awaiting an inspection’ (this provides a measure of additional workload above that of the annual inspection programme).
• 'Percentage of food hygiene interventions completed (A-C rated premises) against the total due in the annual inspection plan' (this provides a measure of the progress in meeting the annual inspection programme for high-risk food businesses).
• ‘Number of food hygiene interventions completed (D and E rated premises) against the total due' (this provides a measure of the progress in meeting the annual inspection programme and the backlog of low high-risk food businesses.

Not all of these key performance indicators are reported corporately.

As a consequence of Government’s aims for health and safety reform including reducing the inspection burden on business and focussing on better health and safety outcomes, proactive inspections will be targeted at high-risk premises where the national priorities identify them as being an at-risk sector or local intelligence identifies businesses with poor compliance history or a particular sector specific issue in the county.

The work of the Environmental Health Commercial Team strongly contributes towards the Council's Corporate Plan 2026 to 2031, which outlines the ambitions and priorities for Buckinghamshire.

Opportunity and aspiration for all: the service will contribute towards this priority by:

• delivering support, signposting and tailored advice to new and existing businesses to help them comply with relevant legislation.
• providing low-cost training for those seeking to pursue a career in the food industry.
• working towards increasing overall food hygiene ratings for food businesses within the county, thereby improving their reputation and appeal to consumers.
• supporting event organisers, through the Safety Advisory Group process.
• targeting interventions at lower food hygiene rated businesses to encourage improvement and to help facilitate their presence on online delivery platforms and to increase their customer base.
• supporting businesses through Primary Authority Partnership arrangements to ensure they get assured and consistent advice on regulatory compliance.

Shaping great places: the service will contribute towards this priority by:

• carrying out waste and pest enforcement and education during visits to food businesses, ensuring that adequate provisions have been put in place.
• encouraging event organisers to consider the impact of their event on local communities and where possible, to encourage alternative means of transport to and from events.
• delivering services in an efficient, cost-effective manner and encouraging officers to be mindful of their own environmental impact when planning their work.

Thriving communities: the service will contribute towards this priority by:

• ensuring we are delivering services to all communities equitably, proportionately, and consistently.
• providing help, advice and support to consumers to protect health and promote healthier lifestyles and consumer choice e.g. Food Hygiene Rating Scheme.
• providing transparent, robust and consistent approaches to investigating and resolving consumer complaints about food and food businesses.
• providing transparent, robust and consistent approaches to investigating and resolving complaints from members of the public/users of publicly accessible facilities.
• providing transparent, robust and consistent approaches to investigating and resolving employee complaints about their working environment and investigating accidents to prevent further occurrence.
• taking part in national food sampling programmes and taking action to remove unsafe food from the market.
• working towards increasing overall food hygiene ratings for food businesses, thereby protecting food consumers.
• investigating substantiated food poisoning allegations and notified food poisoning outbreaks.
• supporting event organisers, through the Safety Advisory Group process, to provide safe events for workers and attendees, reducing the impact of an event on the local community and to demonstrate that Buckinghamshire is a great place to hold events.
• processing export health certificates in a timely manner to facilitate the smooth export of goods produced within the county.

Supporting the most vulnerable: the service will contribute towards this priority by:

• carrying out interventions prioritised by risk and regulate to help ensure that all businesses are providing a safe environment for customers and employees.
• investigating accidents in a timely manner to identify not only non-compliance but the root cause of the accident to prevent future occurrences.
• working towards increasing overall food hygiene ratings for food businesses, thereby protecting all food consumers, and particularly those more vulnerable.
• investigating single cases of specific infectious diseases where this involves a person within a vulnerable group.
• increasing awareness of modern-day slavery and being vigilant for potential exploitation of employees and residents.

Providing quality and value: the service will contribute towards this priority by:

• identifying the need to ensure a consistent, proportionate and fair approach to enforcement and to create a level playing field for all businesses across the district.
• delivering services in an efficient, cost-effective manner.