Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors H. J. Jones, (Bromsgrove District Council), J. Owenson (Malvern Hills District Council), and K. Henderson (Wyre Forest District Council).

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 20^th November 2025 were submitted for Members’ consideration.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Worcestershire Regulatory Services Board held on 20^th November 2025 be approved as a correct record.

The Interim Director of Finance and Section 151 (s151) officer took the opportunity to briefly introduce herself in her new role and in attending her first meeting of the Board.

The Interim Director of Finance and Section 151 officer commented that she was aware that Members of the Board were kept well informed of Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) budgets by their own authorities s151 senior officers.

The WRS detailed revenue monitoring quarter 3 report provided Members with the projected outturn 2025/2026 of £8k surplus. Which was an estimation to the year-end based on the assumptions as detailed on page 21 of the main agenda pack.

The Interim Director of Finance and Section 151 officer stated that the revenue monitoring was looking good and that she had been pleasantly surprised by the income generated by WRS. The income generation team should be pleased. It was noted that any additional costs had been offset by additional income.

The question of the service being seen as ‘Value for Money’ was raised by Councillor K. Taylor, Bromsgrove District Council (BDC).

In responding the Director, WRS acknowledged that such questions had only arisen since WRS had taken over Planning Enforcement for  BDC and that this had led to questions regarding the wider value for money of the shared service. Members were reassured that the Director, WRS reviewed expenditure for the six Districts in comparison with each Council’s nearest Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) nearest neighbour group. These were Councils which CIPFA felt were similar, not necessarily geographically close together. The Director, WRS further stated that he was willing to share this information after the meeting with Board Members should they so wish.

Councillor M. Dormer, Redditch Borough Council (RBC) commented that it was very early days and there was very little activity prior to the take-over for WRS to make a comparison. Councillor M. Dormer stated that he was very happy with Planning Enforcement being taken on by WRS and that he had every confidence.

The Director, WRS further added that the Technical Services Manager’s team worked very closely with the relevant planning officers for both BDC / RBC and had had to pick up some very long outstanding cases.

Some Members commented that this may be a perception, and that the information as detailed in the Activity and Performance Data, Quarter 3, 2025/2026, as shown on page 110 of the main agenda pack, showed that BDC was making the very most of WRS for Planning Enforcement and Environmental Crime.

RESOLVED that the Board

1.1  Note the final financial position for the period April – December 2025

1.2  That partner Councils be informed of their liabilities for April – December 2025 in  relation to Bereavements, as follows

1.3  That partner Councils be informed of their liabilities for 2025-26 in relation to Pest  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34/25

The Director Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) presented the Food Service and Food Standards Agency (FSA) engagement report, for Members consideration.

As detailed in the report, the Agency was the main competent authority for food controls in England. The Agency had been pushing local authorities in recent years to increase their commitments to food law enforcement and to align activities more closely with the letter of the Food Law Code of Practice issued under section 40 of the Food Safety Act 1990.

This initially led to an increase in WRS establishment from 1^st April 2024 of 5 full-time equivalent (FTE) on food work. The Agency continued to monitor the levels of performance and continued to raise concerns in the autumn, with threats to escalate their engagement process. Members were alerted of this at the November Board meeting where the budget was agreed with a caveat that officers may need to look at a further uplift in capacity. After engagement with senior officers and lead Members, WRS partners agreed to a further uplift in the WRS budget specifically for Food Safety Act enforcement.

This report explained the detail of this and how the additional expenditure would be deployed.

Members were made aware of the on-going engagement with the FSA during the November Board meeting. At that time, officers explained that in their most recent engagement with the Agency, it had become very clear that anything less that wholesale compliance or evidence of attempts to operate to full compliance with the Food Standards Agency Code of Practice would not be welcomed and challenge would continue.

Also at the November Board meeting, officers explained that they would be creating a revised action plan for the Agency which would hopefully address their concerns but as part of this they would also be looking at a time and motion document created by the Agency to get a clearer understanding of what resourcing might be required. Officers also agreed to look at staffing in our neighbouring county areas with those districts, to see if WRS were on a par with them.

As detailed on page 28 of the main agenda pack, the time and motion document had indicated that there was still a shortfall in necessary resourcing to deliver fully on the Code of Practice. It also appeared that the service had fewer officers than the collective Environmental Health services in either Warwickshire or Gloucestershire for delivering these activities

As previously explained to Members, the Agency’s view was that authorities with:

• 250 food premises per dedicated FTE were well resourced and likely to achieve Code requirements.
• 350 food premises per dedicated FTE would be stretched in achieving Code requirements.
• 450 premises or more per dedicated FTE would flounder and not achieve Code requirements.

Members were further informed that the current allocation in WRS with the additional posts put the service at around 420 premises per FTE (around 13FTE being available for food hygiene work.) At the November Board meeting, the  Director, WRS had provided Members with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35/25

The Director, Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) presented the WRS Service Plan 2026/2027.

As detailed in the report, the Board signed off the WRS Service Plan each year. This 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.

The plan followed the pattern of previous years and had an Executive Summary to pick up on the main points. This year’s plan continued to consider the long-standing strategic priorities for local authority regulatory services provided by the 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 the following:-

• 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 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 were 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 as businesses might take more risks to survive and households sought to reduce expenditure on what might be essential products.

Although WRS did not yet have clarity on what form of unitary local government would replace the two tier arrangements in Worcestershire, the bids put forward by the partners gave a route for either the continuance of WRS as a shared service alongside Public Health if the decision was a north: south split, or to plug into a unitary county model at a suitable level in the event of that option being the Government’s choice. This should give staff the confidence to focus on what needed to be done in the intervening period.

Working with businesses and other partners would remain essential in the coming year or two to generate income and mitigate financial risk but  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36/25

The Community Environmental Manager, WRS present the Activity and Performance Report, Quarter 3, 2025/2026.

The detail of the report focused on the third quarter of 2025/2026, but the actual data allowed comparison with previous quarters and previous years.

As detailed in the report, although the number of food complaints and enquiries had fallen during quarter 3, the overall number of food safety cases received during the year to date was 14% up compared to last year and 11% above the figure in 2023/24.

Of the 1,149 interventions undertaken during the year to date, only 4% had resulted in businesses being rated as "non-compliant" (i.e., were issued a rating of 0, 1, or 2). A higher proportion of non-compliant ratings continued to be issued to the hospitality sector (such as takeaways and restaurants) or small retailers.

Health and safety complaints and enquiries remained on trend in quarter 3 but reported accidents fell, meaning the overall number of such cases received during the year to date was 4% lower than last year but was broadly comparable with 2024/25. Almost half of cases had been reports of accidents in workplaces with most cases relating to injuries where a worker was incapacitated for more than seven days or injuries to members of the public. Sadly, the service had had to investigate three fatalities this year, the most recent one being an incident where a member of the public had drowned in a privately run swimming pool.

There had been an on-going Community Environmental Health (CEH) involvement following the discovery of a rodent infestation and food product recall in respect of a retail warehouse in Kidderminster. Following the voluntary closure of the premises, legal proceedings were instigated for food hygiene offences. The company entered a guilty plea and were sentenced in December 2025. The Chief Executive of the FSA had expressed their thanks to the WRS team for the way in which this had been successfully dealt with.

As detailed in the report, the fall in nuisance complaints through quarter 3 mirrored previous seasonal patterns, usually reflecting the shift to autumnal weather. As further highlighted, the vast majority of cases were reports of alleged statutory nuisances, with 42% relating to noise from residential properties (such as noise from barking dogs or audio-visual equipment). Other prominent alleged nuisances included noise from night-time economy businesses, noise from other hospitality businesses, smoke from the burning of domestic or commercial waste, and with the dryness of last summer, noise or dust from construction sites.

Business customer satisfaction was marginally above the last quarter at 95.2%, slightly below the figure this time last year (96.8%) but was still well above previous year’s 92% at the same point in the year. So far, 131 responses had been received. One question had fewer responses than the others, making one or two negatives more impactful. Beyond this, speed of response and not giving the response that gave people the outcome that they had hoped for seemed to be the main issue.

Overall numbers  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37/25

The Technical Services Manager, WRS presented the Revision of Policy for responding to Environmental Information requests (for information held by Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS)) for Members’ consideration.

Members were informed that the policy presented was a revision of the EIR policy already in existence, but the revised policy provided greater clarity on how requests could be made and how they would be processed. The policy was in line with the Environmental Information Requests (EIR) and Information Commissioner’s Office Guidance.

Processing included establishing whether a charge was required to be paid prior to the release of the information requested. Any charge would be calculated based on an hourly rate set by each Partner Council and the estimated time required to collate and format the information requested.

Standard administrative processes could not be charged for and any request that was simple to respond to and information could be collated and formatted in less than 30 minutes would be provided free of charge.

Other exemptions to charges applied where the information was held on a public register, where it was examined at WRS offices, where it could be signposted to as it was publicly available or published elsewhere.

Similarly no charge would be made for requests made by students in the course of their academic studies; or journalists in the course of journalism for a news organisation where that information was easily extracted; or made by a professional body of which WRS was a direct or indirect member or where release of the data requested would be for the greater good and was easily extracted.

In response to questions from Members, the Technical Services Manager, WRS explained that with regards to possible frivolous and vexatious requests, that Freedom of Information (FOI) requests were very different to Environmental Information Requests (EIR). Officers would triage any EIR enquires received, and where relevant the information would be free of charge or a charge added. Anyone requesting an EIR would be informed if a charge were to be put in place due to the potential hours taken (this would be a flat charge as per the policy guidance). Should the information requested be extracted and collated in a shorter period of time than originally anticipated, then the charges would be reimbursed.

RESOLVED that the revised Environmental Information Requests (EIR) policy, as detailed on pages 127 to 131 of the main agenda pack, be agreed and adopted as from 1st April 2026.

There was no urgent business to be considered.