The Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) Chief Executive Emily Miles has responded to the National Audit Office’s latest report ‘Regulating after EU Exit’, which was published on 18^th May 2022.

The report considers three regulators whose work has been significantly affected by EU Exit. The report seeks to draw out common issues to help form regulators and policy departments as they develop regulations after EU Exit, both in the three areas covered and more broadly across government.

They have examined:

• The Food Standards Agency’s (FSA’s) role in regulating food safety and standards;
• The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE’s) role in chemical regulation, in particular the Chemicals Regulation Division;
• The Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA’s) roles in enforcing competition and consumer protection law; operating the Office for the Internal Market; and preparing to provide subsidy advice within the UK subsidy control regime.

Responding to the report, FSA Chief Executive Emily Miles says:

“We note the findings in this report, which recognises the significant growth of the FSA’s responsibilities since we left the EU.  We have ensured, at all stages that food remains safe and is what it says it is and this continues to be our top priority.

“Since leaving the EU, we have taken on several new functions. In particular, we are now responsible for the approval of new food products that come on to the UK market. We have an enhanced role in import controls for food entering the country and we have expanded our work to tackle food fraud.

“We no longer have full access to EU data alerts, but we now link with more than 180 countries for food safety notifications, while also receiving third-country notifications from the EU. This ensures we effectively manage food incidents and tackle fraudulent behaviour.

To read the report, click here.