Agenda and minutes

Prior to this item, the Chairman took the opportunity to express the Boards sincere thanks to Mr. P. Carpenter, the Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Resources, Bromsgrove District Council (BDC) and Redditch Borough Council (RBC).  The Chairman wished him well in his new role and highlighted that he would be sincerely missed.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor C. Palmer, Malvern Hills District Council, Councillor M. Stringfellow, Redditch Borough Council with Councillor D. Munro in attendance as the substitute Member; and Councillor R. Deller, Wychavon District Council with Councillor B. Hardman in attendance as the substitute Member.

To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests.

There were no Declarations of Interest.

The minutes of the meeting of the Worcestershire Regulatory Services Board held on 21^st November 2024 were submitted.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Worcestershire Regulatory Services Board meeting held on 21^st November 2024, be approved as a correct record.

The Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Resources, Bromsgrove District Council (BDC) and Redditch Borough Council (RBC), introduced the report and in doing so drew Members’ attention to the Recommendations as detailed on pages 21 and 22 of the main agenda pack. The report covered the period April to December 2024.

Members were informed that the detailed revenue monitoring report, as attached at Appendix 1 to the report; showed a projected outturn 2024/25 of £8k surplus; and was based on the following assumptions: -

• The agreed pay award for 2024-25 was included in the revenue monitoring reports, the report also reflected the additional funding from partner councils of £21k agreed by the Board at the meeting held on 21^st November 2024.

• If April to Dec 24 spend on pest control continued on the same trend for the rest of year, there would be an overspend on this service of £19k. The projected outturn figure to be funded by partners was:-

                           Redditch Borough Council     £11k

                           Wychavon District Council    £8k     

• The following was the actual bereavements costs Apr – Dec 24 to be funded by partners. These costs were charged on an as and when basis. Due to the nature of the charge, it was not possible to project a final outturn figure:                               

                          Bromsgrove District Council       £5k

                          Malvern Hills District council       £4k

                          Redditch Borough Council          £7k

                          Worcester City Council               £1k

           This income was included in the income projected outturn.

The Licence for Victoria Forms was £32k.

• Appendix 2 to the report showed the detail of the income achieved by WRS April – Dec 24, the income had increased which was very positive.

• Any grant funded expenditure was shown separate to the core service costs as this was not funded by the participating Councils.

Information on the National Insurance (NI) contributions 2025-26 onwards and the Employer National Insurance Contributions Grant – Explanatory Note, were briefly explained on page 24 of the main agenda pack.

Appendix 3 to the report provided figures on the 2025-26 Unavoidable Salary Pressures – NI Increases, with a cost to WRS at £72k.

Members queried if any pest control issues were of a concern in any particular Ward or if fly-tipping had caused any pest control issues.

The Director of Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) explained that with regard to pest control, each partner authority had specific criteria for charges for pest control services. In all five district areas where it was offered, only residents in receipt of certain qualifying benefits who needed support with pest control could get free or discounted treatments, depending on which pest control service was required and the qualifying benefit they were in receipt of. Redditch, Borough Council used to offer all residents free treatment for rats, but this ceased in 2017.

The Director of WRS agreed to liaise with the Technical Services Manager, WRS to provide Members with information on any Ward areas where there was a concern that possible pest control issues were due to fly-tipping.

The Director of WRS responded to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33/24

The Board were asked to consider the Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) Service Plan 2025/2026.

The Director of WRS apologised for a typographical error in the report, which showed 2024/5 and not 2025/6.

The Director of WRS then introduced the report and in doing so drew Members’ attention to the Recommendations, as detailed on page 31 of the main agenda pack.

The Board signed off the service plan for WRS each year. The process helped to make Members aware of what the service was proposing for the relevant financial year and provided a sign off that some central government bodies liked to see in relation to service delivery plans e.g., the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

The plan followed very much the pattern of previous years and had an Executive Summary to pick up the main points. Last year’s plan was the first in recent years which had no pandemic related activity as part of it. This year’s plan continued to consider the long-standing strategic priorities for local authority regulatory services provided by Department for Business and Trade (DBaT), as these provided a framework that allowed WRS to have a golden thread back to the priorities of the six partners and to link to the requirements of the various national bodies that oversaw the work of WRS.

Whilst WRS had retained these for this purpose, the focus of this year’s plan remained on the tactical priorities identified in the service’s Strategic Assessment that had been refreshed for the coming 3-years. This piece of work reviewed the full data and intelligence picture and looked at emerging threats. The assessment recommended retaining our cross-cutting priorities but rolling more work into these areas:

•         Supporting a safe and vibrant night-time economy

•         Promoting the responsible sale, breeding, and ownership of dogs

•         Promoting safe, clean, and healthy communities

As highlighted in the report, most aspects of business-as-usual fitted into these priorities, particularly the last where things like environmental permitting and food hygiene related to businesses that sat outside of the night-time economy.

Again, a range of high-level activities against the 3 tactical priorities were identified within the plan so that Members would be aware of the general focus

of the workload. Below this would sit several plans, either team based or cross cutting that would be used to drive the actual business activities.

The plan had been devised in the face of on-going financial uncertainty with money being tight across the public sector. Both businesses and households continued to feel the pinch, and this had led in the past to increases in work for regulatory services whereby businesses may take more risks to survive, and as households sought to reduce expenditure on what may be essential products.

The Government’s announcement of a devolution model for England involving the removal of two-tier arrangements in favour of unitary local government across England would introduce a further factor to be considered. Whatever the shape this took going forward, WRS stood ready to contribute to the conversation  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34/24

The Environmental Health & Trading Standards Manager presented the Activity and Performance Data, Quarter 3 2024/2025 report, and in doing so the following key points were highlighted: -

Activity Data

The number of Food Safety cases logged in our system in the first three quarters of 2024/5 represented a fall of 11% compared to 2022/23 and a reduction of 2% compared to 2023/24. Most service requests tended to be enquiries, including requests for business advice, rather than complaints. Of the 357 actual food complaints received during the period, 69% were related to issues with food products (such as poor-quality food or food containing a foreign object,) whilst 31% were related to alleged poor hygiene standards or practices at food businesses. In relation to these latter cases, it was seldom that they resulted in action as, even if standards had slipped, they seldom meant a business scored less than 3 on the Food Hygiene Rating System, so were still making safe food.

Quarter 3 saw health and safety work generally following trends, although the actual case number in the quarter fell slightly compared to the previous two. The number of cases received between 1st April and 31st December 2024 represented a fall of 11% compared to 2022/23 but an increase of 4% compared to 2023/24.

Licensing application numbers during Q3 and 4 generally fell compared to Q2 figures and this year had continued this trend. Complaints and enquiries fell during Q3 compared to Q2, but overall, they probably remained on trend. The overall number of cases received between 1st April and 31st December 2024 represents an increase of 4% compared to 2022/23 but this was consistent with 2023/24. In terms of the breakdown between application work and complaint/ enquiry work, around 65% of cases consisted of applications and registrations, with the remainder being the complaints and enquiries. Some 30% of applications related to private hire or hackney carriage vehicles and a further 27% were temporary event notices.

As with other areas of work, the service received a higher number of enquiries, such as queries about regulations, by-laws, and licence conditions compared with what might be described as complaints involving licensed businesses or individuals. Looking at the latter, during this financial year so far, some 41%of complaints related to taxi licensing (such as reports of poor driver behaviour, unauthorised parking, or poor driving standards,) with 17% related to alcohol licensing (business allegedly breaching the four licensing objectives).A further 10% of complaints related to animal licensing with most cases relating to the unlicensed breeding and/or sale of dogs.

Planning enquiries in Quarter 3 continued the upward trend previously described. The number of cases received to the end of quarter 3 represented an increase of 29% compared to 2022/23 and an increase of 18% compared to 2023/24. Around 89% of enquiries were consultations for air quality, contaminated land, or nuisances; and 1 in 4 enquiries were now processed (on a contractual basis) on behalf of other local authorities as part of the service’s income  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35/24

The Licensing and Support Services Manager, Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) provided Members with an update on the Automation Project.

Members were informed that the Temporary Events Notice (TEN) form went live for all 6 districts in Worcestershire in September 2024 and that the team had continued to monitoring progress closely since its launch. The shift to moving online continued to rise with very few queries or challenges.

The following forms were now complete and were all in the final testing stages ready to launch: -

1. Personal Licence Applications

2. Premises Licence Applications

·       Application to vary a Premises Licence

·       Application to vary a DPS

·       Application form to transfer a Premises Licence

The next set of forms to be created and tested would be: -

3. Animal Licensing Applications

4. Pavement Licensing

5. Taxi Applications

Whilst the animal licensing and pavement licensing forms were being created, the team would look to form a plan of engagement with the taxi trade, as officers would like to do as much testing with the trade and operators to ensure that there were champions in each district. The formulation of the guidance and FAQs on the WRS website would be critical to ensure a smooth transition therefore engaging with this group was crucial.

With regards to the Taxi ID Cards, the three teams involved in this project (MyTAG, IDOX and Wyre Forest IT) were working together to ensure that there was no risk to the service when data was exposed outside of the environment (when enabling remote access to the IDOX database). Although these cards were used by other public sector services such as the NHS and the police, they had not been used by any other local authority in the country, so there needed to be assurances that this could be delivered with no risk to the Councils services.

The Chairman commented that this was great work and leading in the right direction.

In response to a query as to the public benefits, the Licensing and Support Services Manager, WRS, briefly explained that this enabled forms to be completed online, whereby previously such forms would be submitted via email or in the post and, once received, officers would have to manually input the data (from the received forms) onto the WRS database, which was very time consuming. Whilst the drive would be to have more forms completed on-line, should anyone be unable to complete an online form, officers would still assist them.

Councillor K. Holmes, Worcester City Council commented that she had tried the system during the testing period, and was shocked that prior to online forms, that officers had had to manually input the data. She had welcomed the change.

In response to a query on the Taxi ID Cards and the benefits for the public, Members were informed that; the travelling public using taxis would be able to enter a taxi and scan the driver’s Taxi ID Card, to check that the driver’s licence was valid (had not been suspended  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36/24

There was no Urgent Business on this occasion.