bha attacks plans for food licenCes

By David Shrimpton

Government proposals for the licensing of food businesses have been attacked by the British Hospitality Association (BHA).

The plans come in the White Paper on a new Food Standards Agency which is designed to restore public confidence in safety.

But Phil Phillips, technical services manager at the BHA, said restaurants and other caterers already paid for food hygiene enforcement through business rates.

He also argued that environmental health officers had enough powers under existing law to deal with high-risk food outlets. Phillips added that any licensing system could simply become an extra bureaucratic burden on business, with the money raised being eaten up by administration.

But the BHA said it would support a paid-for registration scheme, provided the fee "wasn't exorbitant" and the money raised was "ring-fenced" to ensure it went towards improved hygiene inspection and did not become part of a council's overall funds.

The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health is also concerned. "The extra funds raised by the licensing system must be directed at local authority regulators," said chief executive Michael Cooke.

But the BHA welcomed the principle of a food standards agency, and Viscount Montgomery, patron of the Restaurateurs Association of Great Britain, said in the House of Lords: "Anything which can bring back confidence in food will be welcomed by restaurateurs."