Guidance

Fish Health Inspectorate: Service Charter

Updated 14 June 2024

Applies to England

1. What is a service charter?

The purpose of a service charter is to improve access to an organisation’s services and promote quality.

It does this by telling you, the customer, how to contact us, the standards of service you should expect and what to do if something goes wrong. It is also written in a clear and easily understandable way.

This document helps us too, by setting out clearly the services our team provides.

Finally, it will help you get the most from our services, including how to make a complaint if you are dissatisfied with any aspect or have ideas for improvement.

2. Who we are

The Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI) is the official service for the control of serious diseases of aquatic animals in England and Wales.

We are a regulatory body based in the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas).

Cefas is an executive agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

3. What we do

We are the Official Service for aquatic animal health in England and Wales, responsible, on behalf of Defra and the Welsh Government (WG), for fish and shellfish health matters.

Our main aim is to prevent the introduction and spread of serious fish and shellfish diseases.

We achieve this through our risk-based aquatic animal health inspection programme, monitoring and enforcing compliance with legislation, trade controls, investigating and control of serious disease outbreaks and unexplained mortalities in fish, molluscs and crustacea.

We also provide advice on biosecurity, disease prevention and disease mitigation measures.

4. Contacting us

Fish Health Inspectorate

Cefas Barrack road, Weymouth, Dorset DT4 8UB

Email: fhi@cefas.gov.uk

Telephone: 01305 206700 Monday to Thursday - 9am to 5pm, Friday 9am to 4:30pm

Staff may be available outside of these times, if not, calls will be directed to a telephone answer machine and dealt with as soon as the office re-opens.

If your matter is urgent, outside of our office hours you can contact our duty inspector on 01305 206630.

4.1 Enquiries

Our priority is to provide an efficient and high quality service that is valued by customers and the public.

This document outlines the standards of service we aim to provide. These standards are regularly reviewed and updated. We are open to feedback and use this to improve our service.

4.2 Responses

We aim to respond to all enquiries, including applications, whether received by post, or email within 15 working days - unless specified otherwise.

4.3 Telephone calls

We aim to answer your telephone call within 10 seconds. Our staff will identify themselves by name and will be courteous, helpful and professional.

If the first person you speak with cannot handle your request, they will transfer you to the appropriate person. When transferring a call, the call handler will explain what is happening and give you the name of the person who will be dealing with your enquiry.

At times, we may take a message to seek further information before responding to your enquiry. 

If your enquiry is not within the FHI’s remit, the call handler will provide you with an alternative contact wherever possible.

We aim to respond to FHI Switchboard 01305 206700 answerphone messages within one working day.

5. Authorisations

Following receipt of your fully completed application for authorisation we will send you an acknowledgement and an explanation of the authorisation process. You will be required to provide a site plan and a biosecurity measures plan. If required, we will also provide you with guidance on how to create a biosecurity measures plan.

For incomplete or incorrect applications, we will contact you in writing and will work with you to complete the form.

Applications to farm (including non-native) and import (susceptible species) live aquatic animals require a formal consultation process under the Aquatic Animal Health (England and Wales) Regulations 2009. The consultation begins on receipt of application and can take up to 90 days. During the consultation period we will visit your site and consult with other relevant government bodies.

We will write to inform you of the outcome of your authorisation within 15 working days of completion of all actions.

5.1 Change of authorisation details

You must notify us in advance in writing before making any material changes to authorised activities and species. Certain changes may require a formal consultation process, inspection or internal assessment, as described in section 4 and you should allow time for this when informing us of intended changes. On receipt of your notification we will advise you if an inspection, consultation or assessment is required and if any changes are necessary to your site biosecurity measures plan.

Once all actions are complete, we will inform you of the outcome within 15 working days. Records will be amended and re-issued as appropriate.

6. Registrations

Following receipt of your fully completed application for registration (RW1) we will send you confirmation of registration, along with registration documents, within 15 working days.

For incomplete or incorrect applications, we will attempt to contact you in writing in the first instance and failing that by telephone. We will work with you to complete the form.

6.1 Change of registration details

If the details of your registered site change - this could include the owners, species or facilities - you should notify us in writing within 90 days.

We will then amend your records and reissue your registration documents within 15 working days.

7. Appointments, visits and inspections

7.1 Booking your visit

When booking a routine appointment our inspectors will give at least 10 working days’ notice. We will endeavour to confirm the appointment in writing and explain what will happen during the visit.

However, occasionally we are required to make visits at late notice or without prior appointment. In this case, we will inform you of the proposed date of visit at the earliest possible opportunity and will use the quickest means possible to contact you.

At times, we may also conduct unannounced non-routine inspections and will not give any formal advance notice for these.

7.2 During your visit

We aim to arrive promptly for all pre-arranged appointments. If this is not possible, we will contact you to explain the delay and arrange a new appointment if appropriate.

On arrival, the inspector will tell you their name and the purpose of their visit.

On completing a site visit we will provide you with a verbal summary of our findings, which will include what you can expect next.

7.3 After your visit

Following an inspection - where no sample has been taken, we will provide a written summary report within 20 working days of the inspection.

If a sample was taken, we will call you to report the results where a notifiable disease has been found within 1 working day of receiving the test results. We will then confirm the results in writing within 5 working days. If a notifiable disease is not found, we will write to you within 5 working days of the diagnostic results being available.

In most cases sample testing can take at minimum of 10 working days, some tests take longer.

8. Disease response

8.1 Serious diseases

Serious diseases of fish, molluscs and crustacea are listed in legislation and made notifiable by law -which means that any suspicion or confirmation must be reported to the Official Service, the FHI in England and Wales. These are referred to as listed or notifiable diseases and may also include new and emerging diseases if they pose a significant risk to farmed or wild aquatic animals.

For diseases that are exotic to England and Wales - we aim to respond to reports on suspicion within 24 hours.

For all other reports on suspicion of serious disease we will respond within 2 working days.

8.2 Mortalities

When informed of a fish or shellfish mortality, where we suspect a serious disease is present, we will respond within 1- 2 working days, according to the suspicion.

9. Trade

9.1 Exports

We require a minimum of 5 working days’ notice to guarantee completion of the export paperwork and to ensure the availability of an inspector for a visual stock inspection.

9.2 Imports

We require a minimum of 1 working day notice for any import of live fish, shellfish and eggs into England and Wales from the European Union using the IPAFFS system.

We require a minimum of 1 working day notice for any import of live fish, shellfish and eggs into England and Wales from Northern Ireland and Crown dependency’s (Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man) using AAH1 notification form.

After the import has been complete you must send us a copy of the signed health certificate within 5 working days.

10. Non-native species

Once application has been assessed a site inspection will be arranged. We will write to inform you of the outcome of your application within 15 working days of completion of all actions.

10.1 No consultation period

Licenses which do not require a consultation period or site visit will be processed within 15 working days.

10.2 Consultation period

Some applications are then sent out for consultation (e.g. non native species at a farm). This process can take up to 90 working days.

Once all consultation comments are received we will inform you in writing of the result within 15 working days.

11. Openness and accessibility

11.1 Information requests

Requests for information held by the FHI are dealt with on a case by case basis in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

We will respond in 20 working days. If this is not possible, we will explain why and give you an expected date for a response.

11.2 Sharing data

We collect data for aquatic animal health and biodiversity purposes. We may share your information with other government departments and agencies for this purpose, or for the purposes of enforcement.

11.3 Data protection

However, we will always observe the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018 and any personal information we hold about you will be treated in accordance with that legislation.

You are entitled to a copy of the information we hold about you and you have the right to rectify any inaccurate information that we may hold.

12. Enforcement

Primarily we are responsible for investigating offences and enforcing the Aquatic Animal Health (England and Wales) Regulations 2009.

Our strategy is to work with the industry to provide help, advice and encourage voluntary compliance with legislation.

However, the policy aims to deal more actively with repeat offenders, or those committing serious offences.

13. Complaints

A complaint is any received expression of grievance or dissatisfaction with the service provided which requires a response.

We take all complaints seriously. They will be dealt with promptly. By learning from complaints, we take action to improve the service we provide.

13.1 First point of contact

In the first instance, please write to the Service Manager of the Fish Health Inspectorate at Cefas.

It will help if you fully outline the facts of your case. We’ll acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days of receipt and try to respond within 10 working days. If we’re unable to resolve your complaint within this time we’ll let you know why it will take longer and provide a revised deadline.

Our response will explain our findings and how we believe the complaint can be resolved.

If the complaint relates to government policies or matters under the remit of other Agencies or government bodies, then it will be referred to the appropriate Government department or Agency.

We will inform you of the referral within 5 working days of receipt of your complaint.

13.2 Second point of contact

If you are not satisfied with the response you may escalate the complaint to the Cefas Chief Executive or Cefas Management Board, following Cefas complaints procedure.

14. Feedback

We always look for ways to improve our service and welcome your views regarding all aspects of our work and its delivery.

We regularly request feedback using electronic surveys.

We collect feedback and monitor our performance against this and our quality standards, and that we report on our activities every quarter to Defra and Welsh Government.

Feedback is vital in telling us how we are performing and we would be interested in any comments about your experience of our services.

Should you wish to comment on our performance, or about the performance of one of our team, please contact the Head of the FHI by letter, email, in person, or by telephone.