To consider the monitoring report on the delivery of the Food Law Enforcement Plan and Health and Safety Service Plan for the period 1st April 2019 to 31st March 2020.
Contact:M Bebbington - (01480) 387075
Minutes:
With the assistance of a report by the Acting Operational Manager (Business) (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) the Committee received an update on progress against the delivery of work on the Council’s Food Law Enforcement and Health and Safety Plans during the period 1st April 2019 to 31st March 2020.
By way of introduction, the Committee were informed that reduced staffing levels continued to have had an impact on the delivery of both Plans although the vacant posts within the Environmental Health Team had been now re-advertised and shortlisting was expected to take place shortly.
In terms of progress being made against programmed activity within the Food Law Enforcement Plan, Members were informed that although the inspections of premises within the risk-based programme had been categorised overall as ‘red’, inspections at the highest risk premises A-C were all up to date. Whilst activities forming part of the Alternative Enforcement Strategy were currently classified as ‘red’ this was not an immediate concern as these remained the low risk premises which would be followed up throughout the remainder of the year.
The Committee were informed that the focus within the last quarter had been to target new business registrations and interventions which had largely been successful with performance in this area improving from ‘amber’ to ‘green’.
In terms of the unplanned / reactive work undertaken by the food law enforcement service, Members were advised that performance ratings in these areas were all at ‘green’ or ‘amber’ and so for the most part on target.
Having noted that the food hygiene training programme had not been delivered to the level which the Authority would have liked, the Committee were advised that the three courses which had been held had had a very high success rate. Members sought further clarification as to the numbers of individuals who had attended these courses and their availability.
With regards to the performance statistics for health and safety activity, the Committee noted that there had been 68 Health and Safety complaints and requests for service during the year with 6 relating to Covid-19 in the last two weeks which was estimated to increase.
Arising from the report, the Committee went on to discuss the impact of the releasing the Country from ‘lockdown’ on the delivery of the Council’s health and safety and food law enforcement services. In response the Acting Operational Manager (Business) reported that it was his teams that had taken a lead on dealing with business closures by providing advice or dealing with complaints to residents and local businesses during the lockdown. This had resulted in a significant increase to their workload. During the recovery phase there would be an increasing emphasis on the health and safety service as newly reopened premises seek to comply with and abide by new government guidelines for their operation.
In response to a question regarding resources and the impact on an already over-stretched and under-staffed Environmental Health team, the Committee were advised that the Government had recently released funding to assist with the safer reopening of High Streets which provided an opportunity to reclaim expenditure. There also may be potential to utilise temporary staff through recruitment or re-deployment within the organisation.
Finally and having noted that the majority of emerging issues regarding compliance with new government guidelines would be dealt with under health and safety legislation, comment was made with regard to the extent of any potential to deal with matters under licensing legislation. In response to which the Acting Operational Manager (Business) explained that as a last resort a review of a premises licence could be sought for failure to comply with the four licensing objectives in the usual way.
Whereupon, it was
RESOLVED
that progress on the delivery of the two Service Plans for the period 1st April to 31 March 2020 be noted.
(At 14.07pm during the discussion on this item Councillor B S Banks joined the meeting).
(At 14:10pm Councillor R West joined the meeting).
Supporting documents: