Food Standards Agency
Sunday 5 July 2009
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Listen to this siteFood Regulations
The Food Standards Agency has a statutory objective to protect public health and consumers' other interests in relation to food and drink. However, we are aware that excessive or unclear regulations can place a burden on business, the public and third sectors and so hinder effective delivery of the intended benefits.
We implement regulations using our Framework for Regulatory Decision Making, which sets out the factors the FSA considers when deciding on regulatory intervention and the different options available. We are evaluating our performance against this framework and progress towards being a world class regulator – more details can be found below.
Back to topThe FSA's rolling simplification programme is about making regulations easier for business, the public sector and the third sector (such as charity and voluntary organisations) to understand and comply with, without compromising public health protection or consumers' other interests. We published our third report on this rolling simplification programme on 10 December 2008. The Simplification Report and Plan 2008/09 includes progress on implementing the recommendations of three reviews carried out in 2007 – a sector-specific review, a review of FSA Guidance and a review of FSA forms. Progress on implementing our World Class Regulator initiative and the recommendations from our Hampton Implementation Review are also included in the report.
Back to topAs part of the FSA's simplification programme we are working to reduce the cost to business of the paperwork and information requests which result from our regulations. Chapter 4 of the FSA’s Simplification Report and Plan 2008/09 reports on progress.
Back to topIn 2007, the FSA carried out a major review of its guidance for business. Following the review, and in response to a recommendation from the Anderson Review of Guidance, we have now produced a list of all our current external guidance - see link below. This will be updated every six months. We have also revised our template for FSA guidance, to take into account the recommendations from the Anderson Review - see link below.
Back to topThe FSA is reviewing the forms it asks business to complete. The review has been looking at FSA forms to make sure they follow the recommendations made in the Hampton Report.
The review is ongoing but we have already identified and taken steps to reduce some unnecessary burdens to business, for example reviewing the information required to register a food business.
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World Class Regulator
The FSA has been considering how to evaluate its performance against the Framework for Regulatory Decision Making.
Criteria have been developed to measure how well the Agency is performing against them in order to improve our end to end regulatory performance.
Initiatives include FSA getting a better understanding of the practicalities of running a food business through a programme of secondments. If you are a business interested in hosting a secondment please get in contact with Judith Taylor
judith.taylor@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk
.
Compliance Code
The Government's Statutory Code of Practice for Regulators (the Regulators’ Compliance Code) came into force in England on 6 April 2008. The Code seeks to embed a risk-based, proportionate, targeted approach to regulatory inspection and enforcement.
The FSA has published a Statement of Compliance that we believe reflects how we comply with the Code.
Hampton Implementation Review
In the 2006 pre-budget report the Chancellor announced that the progress of the five major regulators (Food Standards Agency, HSE, Environment Agency, Office of Fair Trading and the Financial Services Authority) in implementing Hampton principles would be assessed by the Better Regulation Executive of the Department for Business and Regulatory Reform and the National Audit Office (NAO). The criteria for the review can be found on the NAO website. The report of the FSA's assessment was published in early 2008. Progress on implementing the recommendations can be found in the FSA’s Simplification Report and Plan 2008/09, published on 10 December 2008.
Download pdf
(pdf 379KB) Administrative Burdens Measurement Exercise: Technical summaryDownload pdf
(pdf 346KB) Food Standards Agency response to government consultation on regulatory budgetsDownload pdf
(pdf 719KB) FSA 07/09/05 - Being a World Class RegulatorDownload pdf
(pdf 1MB) FSA Model Guidance Template Revised - March 2009Download pdf
(pdf 87KB) FSA published guidance 16 March 2009Download pdf
(pdf 515KB) Statutory Code of Practice for Regulators: FSA statement of complianceDownload pdf
(pdf 43KB)The Better Regulation Advisory Group (BRAG) has been set up to undertake a scrutiny and challenge function, while contributing to the initiatives carried out by the FSA as part of its commitment to the better regulation agenda.
Common Commencement Dates (CCDs) came from a recommendation of the Better Regulation Task Force (now the Better Regulation Commission), requiring Departments and Agencies to consolidate the commencement dates of new or amended regulation to either 6 April or 1 October.
The FSA has published a framework for regulatory decision making within the Agency. This document, which has been circulated to all staff in the Agency, sets out in one place our core values, the principles we will follow when deciding whether we should intervene in an issue, and the different options we have for intervention.
The FSA's rolling simplification programme is about making regulations easier for business, the public sector and the third sector (such as charity and voluntary organisations), to understand and comply with, without compromising public protection or consumer's other interests.
An Impact Assessment (IA) is a policy tool which assesses the impact in terms of costs, benefits and risks of an proposed regulation which could affect businesses, charities or the voluntary sector.
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