View Report Details

Qualitative research exploring regulation culture and behaviours

Project Code: FS244003

17/01/2012

The Food Standards Agency commissioned a small number of in depth interviews to add to its understanding of what works to secure regulatory compliance.

The in depth interviews sought to sense check findings from an Evidence Review recently commissioned by the FSA on the topic of regulation cultures and behaviours, confirm that there were no major omissions in the review, and start to fill two of the gaps identified in the literature. The research forms part of the Agency’s Food Hygiene Delivery Programme (FHDP), which was established to deliver a coordinated response to the findings of the Public Inquiry into the 2005 E.coli O157 outbreak in South Wales.

Overall, there was broad agreement with the key findings of the Evidence Review.

However, three areas were not necessarily reflective of respondents’ own experience including: large businesses may have proportionally lower compliance costs than Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs); UK food regulators tend to take more preventative, conciliatory approaches towards dutyholders; and tensions can occur if enforcers occupy the dual role of educator and enforcer.

Several other factors were considered to deserve greater attention including: the importance of high-level management commitment to creating successful compliance cultures, in particular a motivated and knowledgeable Person in Charge (PIC).

The FSA has developed a précis to accompany its research into regulatory behaviours. This paper sets out the background to the research, the aims, some key findings and its implications for the Agency’s work. The précis summarises the findings of the Evidence Review, published as X04008: Evidence Review of Regulation Cultures and Behaviours, http://www.foodbase.org.uk/results.php?f_category_id=&f_report_id=551

Some of the files on this site may be in a format that your computer can't read. However, you can download Readers and Viewers for the following document types below: