Food: Production
(asked on 6th July 2023) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) cautions, (b) prosecutions and (c) other legal actions the Food Standards Agency took against food producers in each of the last five years.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) did not issue any cautions in any of the last five years.
The number of FSA prosecutions against food producers is shown in the following table:
Year | Number of prosecutions |
2018/19 | 9 |
2019/20 | 10 |
2020/21 | 2 |
2021/22 | 7 |
2022/23 | 2 |
Figures for other legal actions taken by the FSA against food producers are shown in the following tables.
The number of executed warrants, confiscation orders and prohibition orders per financial year is shown in the below table:
Financial year | Executed warrants, confiscation orders and prohibition orders |
2018/19 | 2 |
2019/20 | 1 |
2020/21 | 2 |
2021/22 | 5 |
2022/23 | 9 |
The number of approval reviews, Certificates of Competence (CoC) suspensions and revocations by calendar year is shown in the below table:
Calendar year | Approval reviews, CoC suspensions and revocations |
2018 | 31 |
2019 | 86 |
2020 | 44 |
2021 | 73 |
2022 | 47 |
The number of animal welfare, remedial action and hygiene improvement notices between 2018 and 2022 is shown in the below table:
Legal action taken | Number of legal actions taken |
Animal Welfare Notices 2018-22 | 236 |
Remedial Action Notices 2018-22 | 602 |
Hygiene Improvement Notices 2018-22 | 435 |
Note: These figures are not available on a year-by-year basis.
When it comes to keeping food safe, prosecutions represent the last line of defence. As the national regulator for food, the FSA plays a key role in the prevention of food safety breaches and food crime.