Transparency data

Performance report for Q1 2026/27: FSA Business Committee

Published 14 September 2026

Applies to England, Northern Ireland and Wales

Report to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) 8 June 2026 Business Committee meeting. This meeting took place at 64 Victoria Street, London.

1. Summary

1.1 Performance in Q1 2026/27 remained broadly on track despite ongoing operational and resource challenges. Highlights include:

• an increase in complex food / feed incidents during June required surge arrangements
• local authority performance improved across several measures despite continuing workforce challenges
• Market Authorisations activity remained stable, with caseloads reducing slightly ahead of new Precision Breeding, Traditional Novel Food and Feed Additive applications
• a high-level overview of our change portfolio (Sanitary and Phytosanitary, Future of Food Regulation, FSA Ready, CCP Sandbox Programmes) performance has been included into the report, showing an overall Amber status including one red-rated programme (FFR)
• financial performance is forecasting an underspend following additional HM Treasury funding for Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) activity, actions are underway to manage

1.2 Performance in all other areas remained positive, with no significant issues requiring escalation.

2. Introduction

2.1 The performance dashboard supports the Committee in scrutinising quarterly performance and monitoring key risks, escalating issues where needed. The Committee is invited to review this update, which should be read in conjunction with the slides.

3. Evidence and discussion: key themes and insights

3.1  Food / Feed incidents

a. Incident volumes were low in April and May but increased significantly in June, driven by several complex incidents, including a major non-routine event requiring extensive coordination. The response included engagement with 250 local authorities, issuing 3,188 stakeholder communications and contact with over 4,400 businesses. Despite fluctuating demand, overall operational pressures remained high and surge arrangements were activated. The food / feed incidents measures have been refreshed to provide a more comprehensive view of incidents activity. Thresholds have been recalibrated using a consistent methodology to provide more robust and defensible RAG ratings.

3.2 Local authority (LA) delivery

a. Local authority performance improved across most measures, including resourcing and completed interventions. However, several areas remain rated Red because local authorities continue to face capacity pressures, high numbers of unrated businesses and high caseloads per staff member.  Food standards data for England and Northern Ireland is currently unavailable. We are supporting LAs in submitting the first of their food standards themed reports, namely the establishment report, which will allow more detailed analysis of establishments by their risk rating and compliance with intervention frequencies. We are also addressing data quality concerns being flagged by our automated validation process.

b. We had intended to have food standards data for England and Northern Ireland available for the Business Committee and Board papers in September. This has not been possible. A new technical solution to enable LAs to submit this data has largely been delivered successfully, although slightly delayed. However, the primary challenge has been the quality and consistency of the underlying local authority data being submitted. The project has exposed longstanding LA data quality, system configuration and process variations that require remediation before the full benefits of the new reporting framework can be realised. In some cases, the data quality issues require updates to LA Management Information Systems (MIS) which can take time to resolve.

c. Over the next six months the LA data project team will focus on successful validation of enforcement and resource data submitted by LAs. The engagement with LAs is expected to be very resource intensive but essential for providing accurate and reliable data covering food standards delivery. Work will also commence on the validation of the interventions and enforcement reports in readiness for the April 2027 return. Validation of the remaining reports, namely service demands, prosecutions and sampling, are set to take place following the April 2027 return period.

3.3 Market Authorisations of regulated products

a. The caseload has reduced from 404 to 390. We received 11 contacts, continuing the sharp reduction for the second consecutive quarter. We have concluded 16 safety assessments. 20 applications have exited the service via invalidation and withdrawal routes, including 17 Cannabidiol (CBD) applications, and we concluded one Novel Food Status application.

b. We are working to the delivery plan agreed with the Board for this year, following the prioritisation process. We have launched a consultation on a Feed Additive (with potential safety concerns) and a Traditional Novel Food application in Q2.  A consultation on Precision Fermentation applications is planned for September, having been delayed by about two months from our original target date due to time taken to reach an agreed position on complex risk management issues across three nations.

c. It should be noted that Food Standards Scotland (FSS) has not agreed to all the parts of the FSA delivery plan. The previous FSS Chief Executive wrote to the FSA Chief Executive in May 2026 to make clear that FSS did not have the resources to deliver all the work set out in the plan, and discussions with FSS about resourcing are ongoing. This represents a significant risk to delivery of our workplan.

d. The FSA has recently received its first Precision Bred Organism applications and we are working at pace to progress the applications whilst we fully establish the service.

3.4 Finance

a. The FSA is forecasting an underspend of £9.5 million. Of this, £9.3 million relates to Westminster (£7.7 million resource and £1.6 million capital), with underspends in Wales and Northern Ireland of £0.1 million and £0.2 million, respectively. Northern Ireland continues to operate against a contingency planning envelope.

b. A significant proportion of the resource budget underspend is planned at this point in the year and relates to centrally held contingency to fund emerging requirements and mitigate financial risks. This contingency is below the level expected by HM Treasury and the level of contingency is closely managed with consideration to several significant financial risks.

c. Through the Q1 Reviews, action has been taken to identify and approve additional investment aligned to key priorities, including SPS, Meat Charging Judicial Reviews, AI initiatives, and invest-to-save opportunities supporting FSA Ready and Technology Transformation. This will reduce the forecast underspend.

d. The remaining resource budget underspend relates to staffing where staffing profiles differ from expectations. Recruitment activity is taking place at pace, including successful policy bulk campaigns. We are seeing a high level of internal vacancies due to movement of staff into SPS and Future of Food Regulation roles, creating additional recruitment activity with backfill arrangements. Delays to the SPS summit increase the risk that work slips into next year, so we are working with Defra to ensure we are aligned on assumptions. We have also opened talks with HM Treasury about moving some of this underspend into 2027/28.

e. The capital budget underspend reflects R&D project delivery delays and strategic prioritisation decisions not to progress projects that no longer align with the objectives and outcomes sought through the SPS programme.

3.5 Change portfolio

a. To provide the Business Committee with wider visibility for the delivery of our major change programmes within the annual business plan a high-level overview of portfolio performance has now been included in the performance report. Subject to Business Committee’s agreement, this portfolio update will become a standing component of future performance reporting to enable ongoing oversight of the FSA’s change portfolio performance towards delivery of organisational priorities, emerging trends and matters requiring senior leadership attention.

b. The key points to note for Q1 Portfolio delivery are:

• website Migration successfully completed in June 2026, with delivery transitioned into business-as-usual arrangements and post-implementation support in place
• Future of Food Regulation (FFR) has encountered significant challenges following policy design work that identified scope expansion and complexity. FFR has conducted significant stakeholder engagement and policy sprint work from March to September alongside detailed legislative mapping. This work has identified a number of complex issues and challenges which are set out in the wider programme update to FSA September Board. Additional support is being recruited, and design and delivery timeframes have been reviewed and reflected in recommendations to the Board. Overall, the programme remains on track against agreed growth goals subject to September Board discussion and decisions
• SPS Agreement delivery remains subject to external uncertainty, including changes in the political environment and the timing of UK-EU discussions. The programme is undertaking scenario planning while continuing preparations against current assumptions. Further changes to milestones and delivery timelines may be required
• FSA Ready is progressing as planned, with delivery underway across all priority projects (Operational Policy Function, Central Enabling Services Review, Two new directorates, Food System Intelligence Hub and Incidents Operating Model). Governance is in place to support the interaction between these projects and alignment with the wider change portfolio. Communications and engagement activity is actively supporting organisational readiness for change
• portfolio-wide capacity and change resilience remain a key risk. While recruitment activity is improving resource levels, multiple programmes continue to report resourcing pressures whilst we onboard additional people, and there remains concern regarding the organisation’s ability to absorb and embed concurrent large-scale change. Work is underway to strengthen portfolio oversight and change management capability

c. Overall portfolio performance remains Amber, with ongoing pressures relating to delivery schedules, scope management, resource availability and change capacity, although no significant deterioration in the overall position has been reported during the quarter.

4. Other areas of interest:

4.1 Broader activity across Operational Delivery, Science, Trade and International, Communications and Security remained largely on track during Q1, with most measures performing as expected and a small number of areas requiring continued attention:

a. Overall Operational Delivery remains strong against our performance framework and associated measures. National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) Strategic Intelligence Requirements progress remained unchanged in Q1, in line with expectations, with delivery anticipated later in the year.

b. Science continues to perform as expected, with a fuller assessment of performance and impact to be provided in a new annual report.

c. Trade and International activity remained on track while imported food notifications returned to levels consistent with previous reporting periods following the Q4 increase.

d. Reputation measures remain positive. Communications completed a review of media monitoring and measurement arrangements, including a change of supplier. The transition period has affected some reporting metrics and website visitor numbers continue to be influenced by AI-generated summaries and migration of content to the government website. While our reputation metrics are green, we cannot afford complacency and continue to explore ways in which we can build trust. A better understanding of the FSA’s reputation with wider industry stakeholders would be helpful here and we will be looking at appropriate metrics for industry trust in the FSA to share with Business Committee.

e. Security performance remains positive, reflecting the continued efforts of colleagues across the FSA to strengthen the organisation’s security culture. Ongoing investment in preventative controls, incident management capability, staff awareness and governance arrangements continues to provide assurance that security risks are being actively managed in an increasingly challenging threat environment.

5. Conclusions

5.1 Overall, Q1 performance was broadly positive, with most measures performing as expected. While local authority capacity pressures, delivery of SPS-related activity and financial position risks continue to require monitoring, mitigation plans are in place, and performance remains stable across the organisation including with our change portfolio performance, which is now included in the report. Officials will continue to monitor performance closely and escalate risks of strategic concern to the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee as required.

5.2 The Business Committee is invited to consider whether current mitigation measures remain sufficient in these areas.