The Feed Law Code of Practice provides statutory guidance to local authorities on the way in which they should carry out official controls at feed businesses and enforce feed law.

FSA has carried out a comprehensive review of the local authority delivery of official animal feed controls in light of both FSA local authority audits and Food and Veterinary Office audits. Proposals to make improvements to the current system were accepted by the FSA Board in November 2012.

Proposed changes

The current consultation seeks view of stakeholders on a number of improvements to the way animal feed enforcement is delivered:

• Movement from a single code of practice to individual country-specific codes of practice.
• Introduction of competency-based authorisations for officers in local authorities. This will increase the quality and consistency of official controls while giving local authorities greater flexibility and efficiency in their use of resources.
• An extended scheme of earned recognition that drives fully risk-based official inspection frequency and recognises good business compliance with feed law.

There will be some minor amendments to guidance to ensure that enforcement advice remains compliant with UK and EU legislation. These changes aim to ensure that the delivery of official controls is targeted at those businesses where intervention is necessary and that resources can be focused on businesses that pose the most risk.

For further information, the consultation document can be found online [click here]. For further information on this consultation, email [email protected].

The consultation runs until 12 December 2013.