Food hygiene service cut back to basics due to budget and staffing pressures

Food hygiene services in Newport have been cut back due to financial and staffing constraints.

A new report shows the city council has stopped offering a range of optional services in recent years and is working to clear backlogs of food hygiene inspections.

Contractors were hired to help “significantly” reduce that backlog this year, but hopes of employing two more officers have been unsuccessful.

The council said it faces a “challenging financial environment” and has “prioritised essential statutory functions to protect the most vulnerable”.

Its new draft Food Hygiene Service Plan warns it is unable to carry out routine sampling, hygiene training and interventions at the city’s lowest-risk food premises “on current resourcing”, however.

The council missed dozens of inspections at those lower-risk sites last year, but the backlog has been “significantly reduced” and is on course to be cleared by the end of March, the report says.

This progress was achieved through taking on contractors and an externally-funded environmental health officer.

The report notes hiring two more full-time officers would allow for another 160 inspections to be completed annually, but “no additional resource has been made available” by management.

A council spokesperson noted the backlog was due to be cleared and said Newport had “robust arrangements in place” to ensure statutory obligations are met.

They added a Food Standards Agency audit in 2025 “recognised the need for additional capacity is a common issue across the UK, and confirmed that Newport is continuing to meet its statutory duties by prioritising higher‑risk premises”.

The council did not miss any inspections of sites falling into the three highest risk categories last year.

The new report also highlights a range of optional services which have been stopped, either because funding dried up or because of other constraints.

The council offers 30 minutes of free advice to each food business “usually via phone or email” and could offer further support on a chargeable basis – but said it currently “does not have capacity to undertake paid-for advice, support or food training”.

Similarly, it is currently unable to offer mock inspections and “indicative” food hygiene scores to businesses because of capacity issues.

The council also launched accredited food hygiene training courses in 2017 but stopped them during the pandemic.

UK Government funding later paid for a revival of advice and training, supporting 85 businesses through visits that received “very positive” feedback.

But when the funding came to an end in late 2024, that support ended because “there is no capacity to provide advice and training” when workloads “must be balanced against statutory duties”.

The report notes such training benefited businesses by offering them “timely and quality advice [to] start their regulatory regime in a better position” and making them “less likely to require timely enforcement”.

On the cuts, the council spokesperson said: “Paid‑for advice, mock inspections, training and non‑statutory sampling are optional services and not required under the Food Law Code of Practice.

“Prioritising statutory functions ensures that public health protection remains robust.”