Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect of reductions in local government public health funding on food safety and public protection.

Currently, the allocation of funding for food safety and public protection at a local level is ultimately for decision by local authorities as there is no ring fencing.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA), as the Government department with responsibility for food safety, sets the standards that local authorities should meet and monitors delivery against these. FSA monitoring data provides evidence that resources for food safety are reducing but that the available resources are being targeted to where there is greatest risk.

Where performance issues are identified within individual local authorities, the FSA takes action to secure improvements including highlighting where resources are not sufficient to ensure public health protection.