Primary Authority Partnership

A Primary Authority Partnership is a legally recognised partnership formed between any organisation and a local authority. This local authority the becomes their “Primary Authority”.

Where a business has sites across other local authority areas, and are therefore regulated by a variety of councils, the partnership can be used to ensure a consistent approach to the application of food and safety law.

The partnership can carry out confidential audits of procedures and premises, verify your Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (known as HACCP) plan and provide impartial advice on matters which are of concern. It can also help businesses to plan by providing advice on the continuing changes to the regulatory landscape.

Primary authority partnerships can reduce costs by providing certainty to businesses, reducing risk and aiding compliance. Benefits include:

legally-binding agreement
offers a single point of contact at the local authority/dedicated officer who gets to know your business
offers reliable and robust assured advice
ensures consistency of regulation across all sites
can help to reduce unnecessary checks and inspections for businesses
helps to reduce business risk
helps with the resolution of compliance issues
recognised by other local authorities
can prevent enforcement action being taken if advice has been followed

We are actively looking to form partnerships that can be of real value and benefits to organisations and, if you are interested, please contact us.

For more information on Primary Authority Partnerships, please see the Government website.