PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Food: Production (6 July 2023)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) cautions, (b) prosecutions and (c) other legal actions the Food Standards Agency took against food producers in each of the last five years.

Asked by:
Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat)

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) did not issue any cautions in any of the last five years.

The number of FSA prosecutions against food producers is shown in the following table:

Year	Number of prosecutions
2018/19	9
2019/20	10
2020/21	2
2021/22	7
2022/23	2

Figures for other legal actions taken by the FSA against food producers are shown in the following tables.

The number of executed warrants, confiscation orders and prohibition orders per financial year is shown in the below table:

Financial year	Executed warrants, confiscation orders and prohibition orders
2018/19	2
2019/20	1
2020/21	2
2021/22	5
2022/23	9

The number of approval reviews, Certificates of Competence (CoC) suspensions and revocations by calendar year is shown in the below table:

Calendar year	Approval reviews, CoC suspensions and revocations
2018	31
2019	86
2020	44
2021	73
2022	47

The number of animal welfare, remedial action and hygiene improvement notices between 2018 and 2022 is shown in the below table:

Legal action taken	Number of legal actions taken
Animal Welfare Notices 2018-22	236
Remedial Action Notices 2018-22	602
Hygiene Improvement Notices 2018-22	435

Note: These figures are not available on a year-by-year basis.

When it comes to keeping food safe, prosecutions represent the last line of defence. As the national regulator for food, the FSA plays a key role in the prevention of food safety breaches and food crime.

Answered by:
Neil O'Brien (Conservative)
19 July 2023