Summary Report of 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 Audit Programme: local authority service delivery planning processes and arrangements and relevant open audit actions
This report sets out the findings of the Food Standards Agency's audit of Local Authorities' feed and food law enforcement service, undertaken to fulfil the Agency's statutory monitoring and auditing responsibilities. It was written in September 2025.
Applies to Wales
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The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is the Competent Authority (CA) responsible for feed safety, food safety and food standards law and for ensuring risk-based official controls are carried out at feed and food business establishments in Wales, England, and Northern Ireland.
Feed and food official controls aimed at verifying food business compliance with the relevant legislation are fundamental to safeguarding public health and contribute to the FSA’s strategic outcome that ‘food is safe and what it says it is’.
Day-to-day monitoring and enforcement of feed and food business compliance is the responsibility of local authorities (LAs).
In Wales, the power to set standards and monitor LA feed and food law enforcement services was conferred on the FSA under Section 12 of the Food Standards Act 1999 and Regulation 7 of the Official Feed and Food Controls (Wales) Regulations 2009. The FSA is required to monitor and audit local authority feed and food law enforcement services under this legislation and the assimilated Official Controls Regulation (EU) 2017/625. In developing its audit arrangements, the FSA has taken account of the European Commission guidance on how such audits should be conducted.
In addition to assessing the delivery of official controls against legal requirements and statutory guidance, the audit process also provides the opportunity to identify and disseminate good practice and to provide information to inform FSA policy on the execution and enforcement of feed and food law.
FSA audits assess local authorities’ conformance against the requirements of the assimilated Official Controls Regulation (EU) 2017/625 and the Feed and Food Law Enforcement Standard within the Framework Agreement on Official Feed and Food Controls by Local Authorities (Framework Agreement). Assessments were also made against the Food Law Code of Practice (Wales) 2021 (FLCoP) along with related centrally issued guidance including the Food Law Practice Guidance (Wales) 2021.