Agenda item

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

The Temporary Events Notice (TEN) form went live for 5 of the 6 districts in Worcestershire by close of play on Friday 27^th September. Due to a planned internet update Worcester City Council had requested to wait until a week later to launch the form on their website.

Members’ attention was drawn to the figures in Table 1 and Table 2, on pages 79 and 80 of the main agenda pack. The tables showed the number of TENs received as of the 6^th November 2024. 

Overall, the shift to moving to online forms had been a huge success, duty officers had received a few queries and there were a few technical glitches.

Currently a total of 160 TEN forms had been received, so the vast majority of forms were now being received on-line. There had been a few challenges, including the requirement for the Uniform database system being switched off for routine back-up scheduling. This needed to be looked at and was being swiftly dealt with.

Members were further informed that the ‘Next Steps’ scheduling had changed since the last meeting of the Board, and that Personal Licence Application forms were due to be the next set of on-line forms being launched.

Following a query raised at the last meeting of the Board, Members were reassured that the on-line forms were accessible, this had now been confirmed by IDOX that the forms met the WCAG2.2 AA standards, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Progress continued on the ‘service request’ form where the task and finish group had developed a series of questions for different scenarios received by all the teams across WRS.

It had proved to be quite a challenge to scope out by the teams involved as it had required the need to address a very wide range of potential requests relating to the work of all three WRS service areas. It had also required members across WRS teams to get together at various points of the scoping exercise.

Officers continued liaising with the communications leads to ensure district websites were easy to navigate alongside the ‘help’ guidance and FAQ’s. These were tested with external stakeholders.

With regards to taxi ID cards, alongside the wider automation project, officers were working with MyTAG to implement the roll out of electronic ID Cards for the taxi trade for both safeguarding and nighttime enforcement measures. There had been some challenges with MyTAG but worked continued. IT colleagues at Wyre Forest had have progressed with work on the dashboard and SANDBOX requirement and were now working with SmartTag to enable remote access to the IDOX database. This would enable testing to commence and templates of the Taxi ID cards to be created.

In response to questions from Members, the Licensing and Support Services Manager, explained that officers were not at that stage yet to explain the MyTAG scheme to the taxi trade. Once this stage had been reached, officers would ensure that there was a communications plan in place for each partner authority, in order to explain MyTAG and fully engage with the taxi trade. Officers were scoping ‘early adopters’ and ‘champions’ for the scheme before rolling it out fully, there needed to be buy in from the trade. Officers had a good knowledge of each of the districts, which districts had taxi associations etc. and therefore communication plans would be bespoke for each district.

The Licensing and Support Services Manager and the Director of WRS responded to further questions with regards to Uber, the possibility of evolving a Worcestershire wide taxi booking system, the deregulation act and the taxi trade accepting the deregulation act and how young people used apps on their mobile phones to book taxis. The Director of Regulatory Services stated that, whilst officers understood the issues created, it would not be appropriate for WRS as the regulator to try to drive change in the market locally and that it was down to the taxi trade to make such changes.

The Director of WRS further emphasised that the roll out of the electronic taxi ID cards, alongside the wider automation project, was an incredibly positive step forward. 

The Technical Services Manager, WRS, explained that, primarily on-line application forms were being delivered rather than written application forms being submitted to WRS. With regards to consultations and consultation responses received and service requirements of any complaints being received, e.g., noise from barking dogs, a smokey fire, he was working on such on-line forms. It was envisaged that the level of information included / required on these forms would enable people to be signposted to the relevant partner authorities’ websites or to the ‘next’ stage of a complaint, whichever was relevant. By using these on-line forms, it would ensure that information was provided, and any relevant questions answered on the forms ‘up front,’ therefore reducing the amount of manual data inputting for duty officers.

As highlighted to Board Members at the last meeting of the Board, the Victoria forms project had taken precedent so some other work had stalled slightly but officers were working on what was required to ensure this element of the project could be delivered with in scope and to the required objectives.

In response to a further part of one question, it was explained that certain legislative conditions, such as the requirement to advertise in the press and display information on-site for any premises licence applications would continue, as this was a statutory requirement which had to be adhered to; as was the requirement for any representations received to such applications being brought to a Licensing Sub-Committee meeting for Member consideration and decision making.   

RESOLVED that the Progress Report on the Automation Project be noted.