Research commissioned by the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) has provided insight to ongoing staffing issues experienced by UK food control authorities, and how recruitment and retention can be improved.
In its most recent annual report, FSA noted reductions in local authority staffing across multiple functions. FSA reported that the number of food safety allocated posts supported by local authorities in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland in 2022 has fallen by nearly 14 percent since 2011–2012, and that one in seven (13.7 percent) positions was vacant. In Scotland, the shortage is more severe, as the number of occupied food law posts fell by just over 25 percent compared to 2016–2017.