The Public Analyst Service in Crisis
A decade of inaction

For the past decade, the public analyst service throughout the UK, but particularly in England & Wales, has been under threat in a number of ways. Throughout, the APA has been involved in a number of Government reviews, contributing to discussions and working parties on many aspects of the service. In response, it has prepared and submitted - or been party to - many reports, recommending a variety of actions. To date, however, there have been no developments on the part of those who received the reports. Although many of those documents are now seriously out of date, the basic principles within them remain as valid as they were at the time of writing. The most significant are listed below and each is available for download. (Anyone wishing to enquire further into this issue should please contact the Web Editor by e-mail).

  1.  Report on the Review of Public Analyst Arrangements in England & Wales (October 1998)

A Review Group was established in April 1998, under the Chairmanship of Alan Turner, OBE, with the remit: "To review Public Analyst arrangements in England and Wales and to make recommendations on how best to provide the scientific and technical support needed by food authorities in respect of their food law enforcement responsibilities, taking account of the concerns of other interested parties, arrangements in other parts of the UK and EU considerations". The Report, containing a number of recommendations, was submitted to the then Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food, which had responsibility for food before the creation of the Food Standards Agency. View or Download this pdf document (253Kb).

  2.  Review of Food-Related Scientific Services in Scotland (October 1998)

In parallel with the England & Wales review, Professor Morag Timbury was asked to chair a Scottish Review Group with the remit: " To review existing and alternative methods of providing the necessary level of food-related scientific services to food authorities in respect of their food law enforcement and surveillance responsibilities in Scotland and to advise on the most cost effective way of organising the work to ensure that those needs are met to the necessary prescribed scientific standards, and requirements of domestic and EU legislation". The resultant report was submitted to the Scottish Office (then) Minister of Health 6 months later. View or Download this pdf document (2.5Mb)

  3.  Review of Public Analyst Services in Northern Ireland (May 1999)

Following publication of the England & Wales report, Mr Alan Turner and Dr Tom Gorsuch were asked to carry out a similar review of the public analyst services in Northern Ireland. Their remit was: "To review the present arrangements in Northern Ireland for the provision of laboratory services to meet food safety/standards requirements in respect of non-mcrobiological aspects of food". The report was submitted to the Department of Health and Social Services in Northern Ireland in May 1999. View or Download this pdf document (574Kb).

  4.  The Review of Public Analyst Arrangements in England and Wales One Year On:
     Comments by the Association of Public Analysts (November 1999)

Exactly one year following publication of Turner Review (see [1] above), the APA produced a report indicating how it had addressed all the issues raised in the review which were within its power so to do (see pages 2-16), the remainder requiring policy changes or direction from central Government. Effectively a progress report (PDF 105Kb), this put the matter directly into the hands of the Joint Food Safety & Standards Group (JFSSG) for action; this group was preparing for the formation of the FSA the following year

  5.  Proposed Specification for a Public Analyst Service in England, Wales & Northern Ireland
      (2002)

Following discussions with the Food Standards Agency on the best way to ensure the continuing and effective provision of scientific support for official food control and enforcement, the APA drafted a "specification" for the scientific service and presented this to the FSA for discussion and development. The underlying principle was that the country should first decide what facilities were needed and appropriate (scope and capacity) to provide effective protection for the public. Thereafter, the best way to provide this would be decided and, if this was to be different from the then current situation, then the APA would work with the Agency to ensure that the skills, knowledge and expertise residing in the profession would be retained. A copy of the 2002 Draft Specification (PDF 57Kb) is available.

  6.  Risk-based Sampling of Food (2002)

Among its recommendations, the Turner Review (see [1] above) had suggested that food sampling should be based on risk and, following its establishment, the Food Standards Agency confirmed that food sampling for enforcement purposes would be better based on risk than on any arbitrary system of guidance. Having been commissioned by the FSA to develop a suitable scheme, the APA's resultant 2-volume report allowed for the quantitative assessment of risk, of either harm or other detriment, to the consumer, taking into account the likelihood of occurrence of any defect, the controls in place to prevent it, the scale of consumption and population affected, together with the likelihood of a consumer realising and rejecting the defective food. A final scale, translating the quantitative risk to a minimum sampling frequency was proposed, with the acknowledgement that it would be for the FSA itself to set the final scale. The two volumes are as follows: A Scientific Approach to Sampling for Analysis Vol. 1: Risk Assessment for Sampling (188Kb PDF) and Vol. 2: Background and Support (217Kb PDF)

  7.  Under threat? Public Analysts and Food Control (2002)

This article, published in the December 2002 issue of Consumer Policy Review, highlights the threats then facing the Public Analyst service and calls for urgent action on the part of the FSA and other relevant bodies. It can be downloaded from here (PDF 36Kb).

  8.  Food Standards Agency - A Force for Change (1998)

 In March 1998, the APA submitted a full response to the Government's White Paper, Food Standards Agency A Force for Change. A summary of the key points is available here (PDF 59Kb).

  9.  Analysis?.. What for?.. Who by? (1999)

This short paper provides a brief overview of the processes involved in protecting the public's food and the place and role of the public analyst service in that. It was presented to the EFLA autumn seminar, the general theme for which was "Food Law Enforcement -  Have we Got it Right?" by Public Analyst Paul Lenartowicz (at that time Hon Secretary of the APA).

Anyone wishing to enquire further into this issue should please contact the Web Editor by e-mail.