Food safety inspections for the years 2014, 2015, 2016
Dear Local Council,
Can you please provide me with the number of food safety inspections carried out in your area annually, for the last three years?
How many warning were issued each year and how many fines each year?
What percentage of all food outlets did the council inspect each year?
Have any outlets been shut down for non-compliance and if so what for and how many?
What were the worst offences/biggest fines for each year?
Yours faithfully,
Nigel Gladstone
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Dear Mr Gladstone
Thank you for your enquiry. The NSW Food Authority collates all data
relating to Food Regulation by NSW councils as part of the Food Regulation
Partnership. As such, I recommend that you contact the Food Authority at
[1][email address] or by telephone on 1300 552 406 and
they can provide the information you request.
Kind regards
Marco Forlano
Marco Forlano
Health Coordinator (Acting)
Post Locked Bag 8821 Wollongong DC NSW 2500
Phone +61 2 4227 7111 ● Fax +61 2 4227 7277
[2][IMG] Email [Wollongong City Council request email] ●
[3]www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au
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Dear Local Council,
Can you please provide me with the number of food safety inspections
carried out in your area annually, for the last three years?
How many warning were issued each year and how many fines each year?
What percentage of all food outlets did the council inspect each year?
Have any outlets been shut down for non-compliance and if so what for and
how many?
What were the worst offences/biggest fines for each year?
Yours faithfully,
Nigel Gladstone
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Dear Marco Forlano,
I have spoken to the NSW food authority and they do not hold the information I am seeking in this request. They have the fines data but not the number of food safety inspections
carried out in your area annually, for the last three years. Or how many warning were issued each year, or what percentage of all food outlets the council inspect each year or what the worst offences/biggest fines for each year are in each area. Hence my request.
Please let me know what you require from me to start the process whereby you procure this information.
Yours sincerely,
Nigel Gladstone
Hello Nigel
Each year every NSW council is required to report on their food surveillance activities to the NSW Food Authority. This has been the case since 2008, when the Food Regulation Partnership was first established.
The data councils provide includes the number of inspections, reinspections, risk categories, number of warning letters, fines and prosecutions etc. Council's provide the information via an online questionnaire. We do not collect, nor are we required to provide data relating to the "worst offenders" or "biggest" fines as the fines are statutory in nature, based on defined food safety standards, and are not considered in subjective terms. The activity report questions for the 2015-16 financial year can be found here: https://nswfoodauthority.app.box.com/v/a....
While it is correct that the Food Authority retains the data relating to fines issued, and makes it publicly available via the "Name and Shame" register, it is also the case that they collate every council's data as described above. Given that you are interested in state-wide statistics, it is appropriate that the information is provided by the Food Authority as they collate the data in a consistent manner, rather than each individual council attempting to extract historical data.
I recommend that you contact The Food Authority's Manager Local Government Unit, Ben Lees, on 02 9741 4791 or [email address], and he should be able to help you by providing the last 3 years' activities reports in a spreadsheet.
Should you wish to obtain information regarding specific fines or food surveillance relating to businesses in the Wollongong LGA, you can make an application through Council's Right to Information Officer here: http://www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au/custome....
Kind regards
Marco Forlano
Health Coordinator (Acting)
Post Locked Bag 8821 Wollongong DC NSW 2500
Phone +61 2 4227 7708
Email [email address] ● http://www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au
Dear Marco Forlano,
Thank you very much for your detailed reply.
I have spoken to Ben Lees and he said he will try to help me out with this data, so you may have saved 152 councils a bit of work!
Much appreciated.
Yours sincerely,
Nigel Gladstone
Dear Marco Forlano,
I have contacted the food authority who have referred me back to each council as the information is deemed yours (ie. the council's). I only want the information on the forms you send to the authority. Is it possible for you to send this to me?
I have received it from more than a dozen other councils so far..
Yours sincerely,
Nigel Gladstone
Dear Marco Forlano,
Can I please clarify that I want to know how many high and medium risk food businesses were inspected in each year (2013/14, 2014/15, 2015/16) and what percentage of the total number of these were inspected in each year, how many warnings, formal improvement notices and fines were issued in each year? How many outlets were shut down each year, if any?
This request is very simple as all the information I am asking for is contained in an annual report all councils provide to the NSW food Authority.
If you do not have a copy of it, you can request it from the food authority and they will email it back to you. I am happy to go through the form myself to get the information as several other councils have sent it to me.
Unfortunately, the Food authority will not release the forms as it is third party information so I have to request it from all councils individually. I have already received this information from more than 50 councils now without the need for a formal GIPA as it is an informal request.
Yours sincerely,
Nigel Gladstone
Dear Nigel
Please find attached data extracted from the NSW Food Authority's annual activity report.
Kind regards
Marco Forlano
Health Coordinator (Acting)
Post Locked Bag 8821 Wollongong DC NSW 2500
Phone +61 2 4227 7708
Email [email address] ● http://www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au