Agenda item

Worcestershire Regulatory Services Activity & Performance Data - Quarter 2

Minutes:

The Head of Regulatory Services presented the Activity and Performance Data for Quarter 2 for 2021/2022; and in doing so highlighted that the Community Environmental Health and Trading Standards Manager, had already covered the services Covid related activities during Agenda Item 7 (Minute No. 18/21).

 

The Head of Regulatory Services went through some of the key areas as follows:

 

ACTIVITY DATA

The second quarter of 2021/22 saw us leaving the Covid control regime completely with government replacing statutory controls with basic guidance on what business ought to do.  Businesses were required to have regard to the advice given because of their responsibilities under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 but because the guidance was not statutory guidance under the ACT, officers were limited as to what they could now ask.  As highlighted in the preamble above, details of this were covered in the Information Report – Covid related activities.

 

Quarter 2 saw the formal launch by the Food Standards Agency of its roadmap to restoring the provisions of the current food control regime. A timetable had been set that required councils to address businesses of a particular risk by a particular date, with April 2023 being set as the final date by which all relevant businesses would need to be visited by, (the lowest risk ones being left out of the re-start programme), and a new approach to food law enforcement would be introduced. The Agency was currently running pilots for Food Standards (Trading Standards function in Worcestershire,) and would be talking in more detail to unitary and district councils about a potential new approach in the oncoming months. 

 

The number of health and safety cases recorded by WRS during quarter two was an increase of 30% compared to quarter one. It was also a notable increase compared to previous years. Approximately 37% of cases were reports of accidents; with 49% relating to injuries where a worker was incapacitated for more than seven days. The remaining cases related to injuries to members of the public, accidents where major injuries were sustained and a single dangerous occurrence. Last year saw an increase in accidents, beginning in quarter 2 and running into quarter 3 before declining into quarter 4. 

The number of licensing cases recorded by WRS during quarter two saw an increase of 4% compared to quarter one. A reduction in the number of complaints and enquiries was offset by a 19% increase in the number of applications.

The number of planning enquiries completed by WRS during quarter two saw a reduction of 15% compared to quarter one, but was broadly consistent compared to previous years. Approximately 90% of enquiries were consultations, while 45% related to contaminated land. A fifth of planning enquiries were completed, on a contractual basis, on behalf of other local authorities.

In spite of the high workload, the Technical Services team had recently found time to update its technical guidance note for planning applicants, agents and consultants which ensured that developments were undertaken to the highest standards with regard to environmental protection and the delivery of sustainable and desirable homes across the County. 

The number of pollution cases recorded by WRS during quarter two saw an increase of 36% compared to quarter one. It was also a significant increase compared to previous years; but was consistent with seasonal variations. Approximately 35% of the cases related to domestic noise, whilst 26% related to noise from commercial premises (including hospitality premises). A further 14% of the cases related to smoke nuisance and the burning of domestic or commercial waste.

Noise featured strongly again and it now seemed reasonable to conclude that, whilst some noise was new, for example where some pubs were trying out live music for the first time, much of the increase was down to the public having acclimatised to a somewhat quieter environment during the pandemic. 

The number of public health cases recorded by WRS during quarter two saw an increase of 13% compared to quarter one. Approximately 60% of the cases related to pest control.

Of the 249 domestic treatments undertaken during quarter two, the largest proportion at 49% were due to the presence of wasps and overall 67% of treatments were in relation to properties located in the Wychavon or Redditch districts.

PERFORMANCE

The non-business customer measure at 63.5%, was significantly down on the last quarter and on the 74% out-turn from last year. Having reviewed the data, the falls had occurred against the questions relating to speed of response and speed of resolution. This was almost certainly linked to the backlog of nuisance work the team dealt with during the summer

 

In spite of attempts, it had proved impossible to bring in additional staff resource to support this work area as most of the agency Environmental Health resource was already committed to the pandemic response. Officers had explained the reasons for delays but clearly this had had a negative impact on perceptions of the service. Likewise, numbers who felt better equipped to deal with future issues was also down at 60.8%.

Business customer satisfaction remained good at 97.7%.

Overall numbers of compliant and non-compliant food businesses were at 98.6% and 1.4% respectively. This remained good and on a par with previous years. As highlighted previously, the focus currently was on those higher risk businesses that had historically had a low score.

Generally, compliments outnumber complaints by around 3 or 4 to 1 and so far this year there was difference (15:52). In this quarter, one complaint related to an animal licensing inspection of a premise, another related to a food business unhappy at its Food Hygiene rating, and some to the time taken to respond to nuisance issues.  However, the other complaints had been about Covid Advisors and mainly the difficult job around establishing if someone was self-isolating when infected. Officers did try to be diplomatic when looking at this but obviously sometimes people got upset at the fact that someone had come to check, although this only occurred from a WRS perspective.

Performance on processing complete driver license renewals was at 100% for all authorities. This was great work by the team. Members should remember that officers were reliant on those applying with providing the required data necessary to process applications.

As ever, the number of defective vehicles found whilst potentially in service was relatively small at 13, which was a small proportion of the total fleet, which post Covid sat at 1435.

Members may have seen recent national press coverage regarding falls in the numbers of licensed drivers and vehicles on the road. Councils across Worcestershire had seen some falls in numbers of vehicles although not to the extent reported elsewhere. Looking back, the fall during the Covid pandemic was probably around 100 vehicles as numbers did fluctuate over time, with some variations between districts.

Staff sickness had increased from 0.9 days per FTE to 1.55 days per FTE cumulative for the year. A very minor IT glitch meant that these figures needed updating but in WRS’s case the change had little impact.

The rate of noise complaints against population was 1.08.

The rate of hospitality businesses not upholding the 4 licensing objectives was 6.7%. This was significantly above the previous three years’ figures at this point (4.3%, 4.9% and 2.8% respectively.) Whilst one or other district hitting above 8% at this point was not unusual, Redditch had a similar figure in 2020/21, it was unusual for the lowest district to be over 5%. In the previous 3 years this was 3%, 3.6% and 2.4% respectively. This again supported officer’s anecdotal view that more premises were trying new things like live music to bring people in, combined with the fact that people had enjoyed the quiet that the pandemic controls had bought to their localities.

Income brought in during the first half of 2021/22 is £163,583, which was significantly up on last year that this point (£131,901).  Hopefully this showed that we were starting to see more normality returned in the areas that generated our income streams.

The Technical Services Manager, WRS, responded to questions with regard to Air Quality Management Areas.

The Chairman expressed his sincere thanks to officers for a very informative report.

RESOLVED that the Activity and Performance Data Quarter 2 for 2021/2022, be noted and that Members use the contents of the report in their own reporting back to their respective partner authority.

 

 

 

 

Supporting documents: