Agenda item

Activity and Performance Data - Quarter 1

Minutes:

The Board considered a report that detailed Worcestershire Regulatory Services Activity and Performance Data for Quarter 1, 2017/2018. The report focused on Quarter 1 but the data enabled previous years to be compared.

The Technical Services Manager, Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) introduced the report and in doing so informed Members that during the current assessment period:-

· WRS had recorded 396 cases relating to food hygiene and safety. This total was consistent with the previous quarter but an increase of 45.1% compared to the same period in 2015. The highest percentage of cases were enquiries (52.0% - 206 cases) and complaints about food products (31.6% - 125 cases). In addition to food safety complaints and enquiries, 293 inspections had been carried out across the county. This included premises in the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme. During this period 97.9% of rated premises across Worcestershire included in the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme were broadly complaint, whilst 2.1% were non-complaint; so there was no overall sign of businesses being less well run.

· WRS had recorded 225 cases relating to health, safety and wellbeing, an increase of 13.6% compared to the previous quarter. The increase followed a greater number of health and safety cases, but was not considered to be significant, given the relatively low number of cases overall. The highest percentage of cases were general enquiries relating to health and safety (22.7% - 51 cases) health and safety complaints (21.3% - 48 cases) and accident reports relating to an employee or self-employed person being away from work for over seven days (16.4% - 37 cases).

Members were further informed that cases relating to nuisance and public health had increased by 20.9% compared to the previous quarter and 26.5% compared to the same period in 2016. This was at a time of year when WRS had historically seen the beginnings of a spike in complaints that followed into the summer season. It was likely that a period of good weather in late May and June was the reason for the increase.

The Technical Services Manager, WRS, briefly informed Members that the Government’s draft air quality management plan for the United Kingdom had been launched and that further information on this was included in Agenda Item Number 6 – Information Report – Air Quality Update 2017.

The team had worked closely with colleagues from Worcester City on the extension of the gull control campaign.

The Licensing Team had engaged in a number of other initiatives, which had included the launch of the Best Bar None and the first of the year’s taxi enforcement evenings in Bromsgrove.

National Licensing Week carried out in June 2017 saw a number of joint visits undertaken with the Gambling Commission to licensed outlets across the county.

Business satisfaction remained excellent at 98.4%, but satisfaction for non-business customers was slightly down at 71.7%. This partly reflected some of the difficult cases that the team had had to deal with; and not always able to resolve problems. The 32 compliments received in Quarter 1 demonstrated that staff continued to deliver good outcomes for the public where they could.

The Technical Services Manager, WRS, drew Members’ attention page 18 in the report, which provided details of the owner of a café in Redditch, who was successfully fined for breaches of food safety and hygiene regulations.

The Head of Regulatory Services, WRS, responded to Members and confirmed that in Northern Ireland and Wales it was mandatory for businesses to display their Food Hygiene Rating Scheme stickers. The Government and the Food Standards Agency were under pressure to make it a mandatory requirement in England.

RESOLVED:

a) that the Activity and Performance Data report for Quarter 1, 2017/2018, as detailed at Appendix 2 to the report, be noted; and

b) that Members use the contents of the Activity and Performance Data report for Quarter 1, 2017/2018, to report the relevant information to their Members at each partner authority.

Supporting documents: