Primary Authority is a national government[1]backed scheme that enables businesses to form a legal partnership with a local authority to receive bespoke, assured regulatory advice on environmental health and fire safety regulations. NCASS have Primary Authority (PA) partnerships with The Royal Borough of Greenwich, Wrexham County Borough Council (for Wales) and East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service. We work with our PA partners so that the sector specific advice, guidance and resources that we create for our members, is assured – it is approved and trusted by the PA scheme. This means that the NCASS Safety Management System (SMS), The Digital SMS and our training courses have been checked, verified and come with a seal of approval. This makes regulation more efficient and consistent – instead of having hundreds of different Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) from across the UK review and comment on the NCASS SMS, this is done by just our PA Partners. This approval is then recognised by local authorities.
As an NCASS member you are automatically covered by the PA scheme. The NCASS Digital SMS and training courses e.g. Level 2 Food Hygiene, Safe Use of LPG and Allergen Awareness courses have been assured by our PA partners.
So you can have confidence in your membership resources, that they are up to date, accurate and meet the expectations of EHOs. It enables you to stand out from others because you are following assured advice and guidance that is backed by a government scheme. EHOs must contact our PA partners before taking any enforcement action against you, providing an opportunity for them to review the course of action and where appropriate negotiate a better outcome that ensures compliance without the need for enforcement action.
If you are properly implementing the NCASS SMS, your EHO will have no reason to request that you swap to using another system instead e.g. Safer Food Better Business (SFBB). While they may be more familiar with other systems, it should not be necessary for an NCASS member who is effectively implementing their SMS, to use an alternative system. You have the option to review and improve your implementation of the NCASS SMS if this is found to be lacking.
The Royal Borough of Greenwich, who are the NCASS Primary Authority Partner have provided the following supporting statement: “We have supported and assured the NCASS Safety Management System as part of the Primary Authority Partnership scheme. The system can confidently be used as an alternative to the SFBB system to help businesses understand and demonstrate their compliance.” For more information refer to our guide comparing Safer Food Better Business pack with the NCASS Safety Management System
As long as you are following the Assured Advice and Guidance from NCASS’ Primary Authority partners, other Local Authorities can’t ask you to do something different.
If a Local Authority takes or proposes to take enforcement action against your business, and this would be inconsistent with Primary Authority Advice that you are following, your Primary Authority would be able to block the proposed action.
In addition, if another Local Authority has a question about the advice, or a different interpretation of the law, the Primary Authority will liaise with them to resolve the matter.
You should be inspected less frequently or less intensively, meaning that you can get on with running your business – protected from the consequences of inconsistent local interpretation of regulations.
Your paperwork will be held centrally on our online database and EHOs will be able to view your documents before they visit you, saving you time and money. Some EHOs may choose not to visit you and send you a self-inspection questionnaire as a result.
Event Organisers could be far more likely to hire Primary Authority Caterers, as it reduces their liability and their risks, whilst giving them confidence about the professionalism of the traders they work with.
Some businesses that are already in the scheme are reporting that advice from their Primary Authority has had significant commercial benefits in reassuring their business customers and helping them to win contracts to supply products.
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