SHDC has won a Regulatory Excellence Award for supporting businesses during Brexit

Cllr Judy Pearce, Leader of South Hams District Council said: “This award is a great achievement that recognises the excellent standards that the Better Business for All partnership has set through a joint working approach.

“The EU-transition was a huge challenge to the Council and many local businesses. For example, we worked with our main exporters of fish products to ensure that their catch could be exported safely to Europe and beyond, negotiating a huge amount of red tape to ensure food safety standards remain high.

EU-transition case study: Fishing industry

All UK-flagged vessels supplying fishery products for export to the EU must be registered as a food business with their local authority and have undergone a hygiene inspection. Local preparations started in early 2020 with the inspection of fishing vessels over 10m in line with Government advice.

A SHDC spokesperson said: "South Hams District Council worked with the exporters to make sure that they were all registered with the online certificate process on the Government Gateway and exporters were kept up to date on any business readiness webinars available. 

"In the South Hams we have 29 registered fishing vessels and 100% of inspections were carried out.

Better Business for All (BBfA) "brings together businesses and regulators in local partnerships to identify the issues facing local businesses and provide support to them". Most local authorities are involved with the programme, preparing and implementing action plans and sharing good practice. The partnership has traditionally focussed on the food-industry as well as health and safety, fire safety and licensing activity.

The Regulatory Excellence Awards recognise "outstanding work and innovation in combating coronavirus, helping businesses trade safely while protecting consumers". 

Paul Scully MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Minister for London, provided the opening address. He said: “Thank you to all the organisations that have entered this year’s Regulatory Excellence Awards and for the cooperation and partnership working you were involved in with the Office for Product Safety and Standards. This year it is particularly important we celebrate outstanding regulatory practice in supporting businesses and protecting consumers.”

There were five award categories: Coronavirus, Better Business for All, Primary Authority, Innovation and Technical, and Product Safety.