Agenda item

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 or revoked).  Passengers would be able to report any issues found whilst scanning a Taxi ID Card to Licensing WRS, and officers would be able to deal with this as soon as was practicable given the potential seriousness of this.   

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