Paul Foster (Head of the Regulatory Services Partnership) presented the Annual Performance report of the Joint Regulatory Services. He highlighted that effective management of performance is vital to the success of the shared service, and that performance indicators had been set and monitored. He also asked Members to note that external agencies, detailed in the report, monitored the performance of the partnership. 

The Report considered performance across the four operational areas:

•           Environmental Health- Commercial  -

•           Environmental Health- Pollution

•           Licensing Team

•           Trading Standards Team

The Head of the Regulatory Services Partnership introduced the section of the report dealing with Environmental Health (Commercial Team). Members noted the information in the report and discussed:

•           Food Standards Agency Audit of Richmond – Members noted the information in the report regarding the successful outcome of this audit.  Members discussed Enforcement Policy and noted that enforcement should be proportionate and that less than 1% of businesses are closed by enforcement action. Members asked if an advisory service, with a charge, could be offered for businesses before reaching the final enforcement stage.

•           Food Hygiene Ratings – Members noted that both boroughs operate the Food Standards Agency Hygiene rating Scheme (FHRS) which is an internet based scoring system. England, unlike the rest of the UK, has not made it mandatory for the scores from this scheme to be physically displayed on the shop or restaurant front. Whilst Members felt that this might penalise small businesses they also thought that it would be of real benefit to the Consumer to have these score displayed. Officers said that since the website had been launched standards have been raised as businesses have been more competitive in trying to achieve high ratings and have asked for more inspections to boost their ratings. Member requested more information on this issue and asked the Head of the Regulatory Services Partnership for a briefing Paper to be circulated before the next meeting.

•           Wimbledon Tennis and The Rugby World Cup – Members noted the information in the report regarding the hosting of these two major sporting events and the work this creates for the partnership services. They noted the amount of work that was being done to prepare for the Rugby World Cup and the success of the work at this years Wimbledon Tennis Championship.

The Head of the Regulatory Services Partnership introduced the section of the report dealing with Licensing. Members noted the information in the report and discussed:

•           Cumulative Impact Zones (CIZ) – the Committee noted that Merton already had two – Wimbledon Village and Wimbledon Broadway, and that a third was being proposed for Mitcham Town Centre, where the concerns were related to Street Drinking.

•           Telephone Calls received by licensing departments – Officers explained that the two boroughs had very different administrative systems relating to incoming telephone calls. Richmond had a business support team that answered calls and recharged to the relevant department. This created an exact record of number of calls received. Merton did not have such a system and the number of calls received by the licensing department was not recorded. The Chair asked for this difference to be noted.

The Committee noted the information in the report dealing with Environmental Health (Pollution Team).  Members asked if the information contained in point 2.26 was inverted, The Environmental Health Manager said he would look at this.  The Environmental Health Manager explained that the ambition was to provide a 24 hour emergency service but that this would only be able to deal with high level issues like a car alarm constantly sounding and that different people had different perceptions of noise and nuisance noise. It was important not to build expectation of the emergency service.  Members noted that the shortage of contaminated land officers had lead to a contract with Croydon which will provide these services.

The Head of the Regulatory Services Partnership introduced the section of the report dealing with Trading Standards. Members  were interested to hear from officers about the range of issues dealt with by Trading Standards, and noted the information within report.  They noted that much of the work of Trading Standards officers was criminal investigations and they worked closely with the Police on such issues.

The Head of Regulatory Services explained that regulatory services officers were trained on cross cutting issues including counterterrorism, and identifying child sexual exploitation.

The Chair thanked Officers for their detailed report and the enormous amount of work that had been achieved in the first year of the Joint Service and asked that this report be made available on the websites.

RESOLVED

The Committee noted and commented on the review of annual performance of the Regulatory Services Partnership