To consider a report by the Commercial Team Manager outlining progress with the delivery of the Plan during the period 1st April to 30th September 2016.
Contact:K Lawson 388291
Minutes:
The Committee considered a report by the Commercial Team Leader (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) outlining progress against the Council’s Food Law Enforcement Plan during the period 1stApril to 30th September 2016.
Members were advised that in general terms, the Service was on target to deliver the programmed work within the Service Plan. The key activities of scheduled inspections, compliance revisits, inspections of new businesses and sampling visits were all on target.
The Committee were advised that since the last meeting, Councillors Criswell and Conboy had joined members of the Commercial Team on routine visits to business premises and the Commercial Team Leader reiterated his invitation to all Members of the Committee to help them obtain a better understanding of the workload and activities undertaken by the team. Members were also reminded that they could keep up-to-date by using the Environmental Health Twitter feed.
Having noted that unplanned (reactive) work from Customer complaints and service requests were slightly ahead of predicted numbers, Members were advised that changes to the selection criteria for the prioritisation of issues had been made a few weeks ago to manage the rising numbers.
Attention was then drawn to Appendices 1 and 2 of the main report, which set out detailed information concerning the delivery of the Food Law Enforcement Service Plan. In doing so, Members were advised that the number of new businesses continued to be an unpredictable demand on resources, with the greatest number being in St Neots during the recording period. However the Service continued to meet the Corporate Performance Indicator which required that 50% of newly registered food businesses were inspected within 28 days of registration.
Attention was also drawn to the Team’s commitment to the Secret Garden Party and it was reported that the number of hours for the 2016 event had reduced from the previous year. Members noted that the Garden Party Organisers had been advised about monitoring their own standards.
In considering the information within the report, Members were pleased to note that despite the increase in reactive activity, Officers were satisfied that the Plan remained deliverable. In response to a question regarding the UK Communication for Compliance Trial, Members were advised that the Authority had received an invitation from the Better Regulation Delivery Office to participate in a pilot to test whether the way in which the Council deals with businesses is user friendly.
With reference to the introduction of the new selection criteria for the prioritisation of complaints, the Commercial Team Leader was invited to summarise the details of a recent complaint where the complainant had been dissatisfied with the priority given to the issue. In doing so, he outlined the factors which had been considered as part of the prioritisation of this issue. Members were also advised that individuals would be signposted to other relevant organisations who may be able to assist where this was appropriate.
It was suggested that it might be useful to ascertain from health colleagues as a statistic, the percentage of cases presenting at GP practices with food poisoning compared to those with cases of sickness and diarrhoea as these were often confused.
Whereupon in line with their previous decision on the monitoring report for the Health and Safety Service Plan, it was
RESOLVED
(a) that the contents of the Monitoring Report on the Delivery of the Food Law Enforcement Service Plan for the period 1st April to 30th September 2016 be noted.; and
(b) that the Chair and Vice-Chairman be authorised to establish whether it was necessary for future monitoring reports to appear on the Agenda for discussion at future meetings.
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