The challenge
Like most London boroughs, Merton has a statutory duty to inspect food businesses at a frequency set by the Food Law Code of Practice, and a backlog built up during the pandemic that its in-house team could not clear alongside day-to-day demand. Every overdue inspection is a food business trading without a current risk rating, an exposure the FSA monitors and residents rely on the council to manage.
Merton needed a large volume of inspections completed to a consistent professional standard, within a fixed budget and timescale, without diverting its own officers from complaints, enforcement and new business registrations. Simply hiring locum EHOs would have added capacity but left the council to manage, check and report on every inspection itself.
The solution
A Statement of Works, not a supply arrangement. Oyster agreed a defined scope with Merton: a set number of inspections, to Food Law Code of Practice standards, over an agreed period, at a fixed price. Oyster took responsibility for the whole programme: resourcing, scheduling, delivery, quality and reporting.
A fully qualified team. Every officer on the programme is a qualified Environmental Health Officer or Food Safety Officer who meets the Food Standards Agency competency requirements for the interventions they carry out, and maintains up-to-date CPD. Oyster verifies qualifications, competency and CPD before deployment and monitors them throughout.
Quality assurance built in. A Lead Food Officer audits inspections as they come back, checks consistency of ratings and reports, gives structured feedback to the inspecting officers and reports findings to the council. Merton receives inspections it can rely on, and evidence of the assurance behind them.
Reporting the council can use. Regular delivery reporting against the agreed volumes, including outcomes by risk category, compliance levels found and follow-up actions, gives the service lead the numbers needed for members, audit and the FSA.
The results
- The full year-one programme of 1,500 inspections was delivered on time and within the agreed budget.
- [X]% of inspected premises found broadly compliant; [X] premises identified requiring follow-up or enforcement action, risks the council would not otherwise have known about.
- Backlog reduced from X overdue premises to X / inspection programme brought back on schedule.
- On the strength of that delivery, Merton re-awarded the programme for 2026 and 2027 at double the volume: 1,500 food hygiene and 1,500 food standards inspections.
- Merton’s own officers stayed focused on complaints, enforcement and new registrations throughout.
Why it matters
Food inspection backlogs are a statutory risk, not an admin problem. Merton’s programme shows what a Statement of Works does that agency supply cannot: a defined outcome, a professionally competent team, quality assured at source, and a single point of accountability. That is why the council came back for more.