Committee
Health and Community Care Committee, 10 May 2000
10 May 2000 · S1 · Health and Community Care Committee
Item of business
Subordinate Legislation
Would you envisage outside accreditors coming into a store, as they do in the case of Scottish vocational qualifications, to verify that the required standards are being attained?
In the same item of business
The Convener:
LD
Agenda item 2 is subordinate legislation. We have been approached by the Scottish Retail Consortium. It has some concerns about the Food Safety (General Food...
Patrick Browne (Scottish Retail Consortium):
Thank you, convener. I will start by introducing my colleagues, Roger Hammons, who is the company standards executive with Somerfield Stores Ltd and Bob Jami...
Roger Hammons (Scottish Retail Consortium):
Somerfield and Kwik Save are the same company. We operate more than 100 supermarkets in Scotland. Some fresh food operations in those stores are run by separ...
Patrick Browne:
Bob Jamie would like to make a specific point about the status of proprietors in Scotland.
Bob Jamie (Scottish Retail Consortium):
There is a third category of business ownership that is peculiar to Scotland and needs to be referred to specifically in the regulations. A Scottish partners...
Patrick Browne:
Our third concern relates to the training requirements that are set out in the regulations. I stress that the consortium is not questioning those requirement...
Margaret Jamieson:
Lab
Thank you for giving us such a broad outline of the consortium's position. I have some reservations. As someone who does not normally use a butcher's shop, b...
Patrick Browne:
I will deal with the question about the possible impact on the operation of stores and, ultimately, on jobs. The regulatory impact assessment that accompanie...
The Convener:
LD
Your concerns relate not to the regulations as a whole, but to some of the practicalities.
Kay Ullrich:
SNP
You made a point about in-house training. How would the standard of that training be verified? In-house training can mean many things.
Roger Hammons:
There is a syllabus for training in basic and intermediate food hygiene. We would have to show to the local authority's satisfaction that the company's in-ho...
Kay Ullrich:
SNP
Would you envisage outside accreditors coming into a store, as they do in the case of Scottish vocational qualifications, to verify that the required standar...
Roger Hammons:
Many of the companies to which we are referring employ people in-house to check that the store managers and people in the store are carrying out the company'...
Kay Ullrich:
SNP
But that is all in-house.
Roger Hammons:
Yes, but they have to produce a separate report. Under the legislation on pricing and date marking, we have to be able to demonstrate reasonable caution and ...
Kay Ullrich:
SNP
Do you have any objection to external verifiers coming in to ensure that in-house training is meeting the required standard?
Roger Hammons:
We would object to a third party coming in. The external invigilators should be the local authority enforcement officers.
Irene Oldfather:
Lab
Kay Ullrich has already asked my question, which was about who would decide what was equivalent training, how it would be monitored, and what the quality con...
Margaret Jamieson:
Lab
Have the trainers in your organisation been validated as qualified to discharge that duty?
Roger Hammons:
Yes, they have. There are basic, intermediate and advanced levels of hygiene training, and the regulations require certain people to have basic and intermedi...
Kay Ullrich:
SNP
Is that external training?
Roger Hammons:
Yes. It is carried out by environmental health bodies.
Margaret Jamieson:
Lab
So the trainers are qualified.
Roger Hammons:
Yes, they are.
Malcolm Chisholm:
Lab
I have a general question. I am not entirely clear about the practical effect of passing these regulations. There seem to be references in them to specific a...
Patrick Browne:
The issue is to ensure that the regulations apply to the parts of a store to which they should apply. As I said, our fundamental concern is that the regulati...
Malcolm Chisholm:
Lab
What are the practical effects on other parts of the shop, given that most of the regulations are specific to those parts of the shop?
Patrick Browne:
The practical effect is the one that I addressed earlier in relation to catering premises in a store. If a coffee shop is part of a retail floor space and is...
Malcolm Chisholm:
Lab
What would have to be done in the coffee shop that would be undesirable?
Patrick Browne:
The second issue is the point Roger Hammons made about concessions operating within stores. In trying to resolve that point, one has to deal with the mixed r...