Food Hygiene Inspections 2017 - 2018

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has set out the levels of service to be provided by local authorities for Food Safety, Food Standards (labelling and composition) and Animal Feeding Stuffs. The most recent Food Law Code of Practice was issued in April 2014 and informs Food Authorities on the execution and enforcement of food legislation.

In order to ensure full compliance with the Code Wigan Council is seeking a supplier to conduct a number of inspections at a range of premises within the Wigan Borough. The Council is looking for the supplier to provide structured and thorough inspections of premises, to determine the adequacy of food safety and to appropriately risk rate the premises and provide a food hygiene rating score in line with the Code and Practice Guidance.

The Borough’s business profile is large and diverse. The inspections will be conducted at a range of business types and risk categories. Based on the current figures available, there are a total of 887 premises to be inspected and risk rated. Of this total figure, indicative figures of the food hygiene inspection category types to be carried out are as follows:

• 322 premises currently rated Category C.
• 565 premises currently rated as Category D.

This equates to approximately 17 inspections per week to be carried out between May 2017 to April 2018. The total number of premises and their category types may change during the period of the contract and may go up or down.

The premises allocated will have an existing food hygiene rating of either Category C or D. However, a small percentage of visits may result in a business being allocated a different rating. Therefore, within the priced submission tenderers are required to provide unit assessment costs for each category type A to E.

The premises to be inspected will be identified by the Council. The successful supplier will be provided with a premises list detailing each establishment prior to commencement of the contract. The premises list will be split into 4 batches and released quarterly to facilitate work planning, but a number of inspections shall be completed each week.

For the full scope of the contract requirements tenderers should read the Specification for this service and the Invitation to Tender documentation.

The deadline of Friday 7th April 2017 at 17:00 represents the deadline for the submission of final tender applications.