Day 084 - 07 Feb 95 - Page 44
1 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What you are particularly on is, I would
4 assume, under-cooked food, although it may not in fact be
5 food poisoning, no objection has been taken to it in your
6 pleading of justification and fair comment, foreign
7 objects. What I suggest you simply ask: Is there any
8 procedure which requires a manager to record any complaint
9 of a foreign object or under-cooking.
10
11 MR. MORRIS: Yes, foreign objects ----
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you just ask general questions about how
14 any complaint is dealt with we have wandered away from what
15 you are really trying to focus on.
16
17 MR. MORRIS: I do not think I have wandered away at all, with
18 respect.
19
20 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am suggesting a more direct approach which
21 keeps us focused on what you are really on to under "food
22 poisoning". Follow my guidance in relation to that. If
23 you just ask what happens, what happens without focusing
24 the witness on what you are really concerned with, we can
25 take a long time. If you are not going to ask the question
26 I will ask it for you.
27
28 (To the witness): Is there a procedure laid down for the
29 recording and further processing of any complaint made in
30 relation to food being under-cooked or there being some
31 foreign body in the food?
32 A. The manager would fill out an incident report form.
33
34 Q. What would happen to that?
35 A. The current process is that that is sent off to the
36 customer services department in East Finchley.
37
38 MR. MORRIS: That is different from the RIDDOR accident report?
39 A. Well, the same procedure, but RIDDOR has to be reported
40 to the local environmental health officer as well.
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You say that the procedure with regard to a
43 complaint of under-cooked food or foreign body, you said
44 the current process is that that is sent off to customers
45 service department in East Finchley. For how long has the
46 procedure been that they should be entered on an incident
47 report form which should be sent off to the customer
48 services department?
49 A. Incident report forms have been in existence for as
50 long as I can remember. The only reason I said "current"
51 was that prior to the customer services department being
52 formed in July of last year, they were sent to the
53 Communications Department. People within that department
54 handled customer complaints and customer services. So the
55 process as regards the restaurant manager has always been
56 the same, but the person to whom he sent the form changed.
57
58 MR. MORRIS: So the incident report forms that are filled out --
59 I am trying to see the difference between the RIDDOR and
60 the incident report forms. The incident report forms log
