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Food Act 2014

Provisions relating to recognition, territorial authorities, administration, and enforcement - Territorial authorities - Functions and duties of territorial authorities

174: Duties of territorial authority

You could also call this:

"What councils must do to keep our food safe"

As a territorial authority, you must take all reasonable steps to ensure you have enough resources to carry out your role. You must manage your functions and duties in line with national outcomes issued under section 175. You must also make sure your employees can do their jobs properly.

You need to ensure your employees are competent and can stay impartial when doing their jobs. You must monitor how well you are doing your job and write reports about it to the chief executive. You should provide these reports annually or at intervals specified in a notice.

You must be able to respond to emergency situations and facilitate reviews if you are being reviewed under section 185. You will need to provide information required under section 189 to the person doing the review. The chief executive can specify how often you need to provide reports and what details to include in them, as stated in section 405.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM2996279.

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Part 4Provisions relating to recognition, territorial authorities, administration, and enforcement
Territorial authorities: Functions and duties of territorial authorities

174Duties of territorial authority

  1. A territorial authority must—

  2. take all reasonable steps to ensure it has adequate resources and capability to carry out its role, functions, and duties and to exercise its powers under this Act:
    1. take all reasonable steps to ensure its functions, duties, and powers under this Act are managed, performed, and exercised in accordance with any relevant national outcomes issued under section 175:
      1. take all reasonable steps to ensure that relevant persons who are employed or engaged by the territorial authority are able to carry out their functions and activities under this Act, including verification, investigation, and enforcement activities:
        1. take all reasonable steps to ensure that relevant persons who are employed or engaged by the territorial authority for the purposes of this Act maintain their competencies:
          1. take all reasonable steps to ensure that any person who is employed, engaged, or used by the territorial authority is not placed in a situation that compromises his or her impartiality or independence in relation to the performance of his or her functions or activities under this Act:
            1. monitor its performance of its functions and duties and its exercise of its powers under this Act and provide written reports on these matters to the chief executive annually or at intervals specified in a notice referred to in subsection (2):
              1. provide capability to respond as required in an emergency situation:
                1. if it is being reviewed under section 185, facilitate the conduct of the review and provide any information required under section 189 by the person conducting the review:
                  1. carry out any other function, duty, or direction imposed or given by or under this Act.

                    1. The chief executive may, by notice under section 405, specify the intervals at which the reports required by subsection (1)(f) must be provided and any details to be included in the reports.

                    2. A notice issued under section 405 in reliance on this section is secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements).

                    Notes
                    • Section 174(1)(f): amended, on , by section 25(1) of the Food Safety Law Reform Act 2018 (2018 No 3).
                    • Section 174(2): inserted, on , by section 25(2) of the Food Safety Law Reform Act 2018 (2018 No 3).
                    • Section 174(3): inserted, on , by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).