Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which local authorities did not report any food standards sampling in 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 via the Local Authority Monitoring System; and how many samples were taken by each local authority that took at least one sample.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) collects sampling data from local authorities on an annual basis. Food standards sampling is the responsibility of county councils, unitary authorities, the London Boroughs and some but not all metropolitan borough councils. Sampling for food standards covers analyses for chemical (other) contamination, composition, and labelling and presentation.

Sampling data, including for food standards, and total numbers of samples taken for 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15, as reported by local authorities, are published on the FSA’s website at the links below. All of the food standards samples reported would have been submitted for analysis to the public analyst appointed by the individual local authorities. The data at the links covers food standards samples paid for by FSA and those paid for by the local authorities.

2014/15 - www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/laems-uk-sampling-data-2014-15.xlsx

2013/14 - www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/laems-sampling-data-2013-14.xls

2012/13 - www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/multimedia/spreadsheets/laems-sampling_2012-13.xls

Local authorities with responsibility for food standards that did not report sampling in 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15 are shown below.

2014/15 - Isles of Scilly

2013/14 - Isles of Scilly, Sutton, Blackpool, Rutland

2012/13 - Isles of Scilly, Birmingham, Rochdale, Blackburn, Rutland, Leicester City, Swindon, South Lanarkshire and Armagh

Where the FSA pays for a local authority to take a sample, and its analysis, FSA requires that the data on the sample is reported on the UK Food Surveillance System. Total figures for each period are shown in the table below.