Contents
Introduction
1. The Environmental and Consumer Service aim is to meet
community expectations regarding the protection and provision of a
safe, healthy, fair and equitable environment and to sustain and
enhance the health and safety of all who live, work, trade in or
visit the area. The service is founded on the enforcement of
legislation and the promotion of good practice, education and
information.
2. Service functions are extensive. They include food
safety, trading standards, health and safety at work, environmental
protection (including statutory nuisance) licensing and building
control.
3. Environmental and Consumer Service staff work with other
Regulators both within and outside the Council to ensure coherent
regulation, and with trade, residents, voluntary groups, town and
parish councils, the Local Strategic Partnership and
Community Safety Partnership in order to achieve common
goals.
4. The Service regards prevention as better than
cure. It offers information and advice to those it
regulates and seeks to secure cooperation avoiding bureaucracy or
excessive cost. It encourages individuals and
businesses to put community and environmental health and safety
first.
5. This Policy sets out the general principles which the
Environmental and Consumer Service intends to follow in relation to
enforcement and prosecution. Its implementation
and effectiveness will be monitored by the Service.
6. The powers available include statutory notices, improvement
and prohibition notices, suspension or revocation of licences,
variation of licence conditions, injunctions and the carrying out
of remedial works. Where the Environmental and Consumer
Service has carried out remedial works, it will seek to recover the
full costs incurred from those responsible.
7. Where a criminal offence has been committed, in addition to
any other enforcement action, the Environmental and Consumer
Service will consider instituting a prosecution or administering a
caution.
8. The Environmental and Consumer Service believes in firm but
fair regulation. Underlying the policy of firm but fair
regulation are the principles of:
- proportionality in the application of the law and in securing
compliance;
- consistency of approach;
- transparency about how the Service operates and what those
regulated may expect from the Service; and
- targeting of enforcement action.
9. Proportionality means relating enforcement action to the
risks. Those whom the law protects and those on whom it
places duties, expect the action taken by enforcing authorities to
be proportionate to any risks to community and environmental health
and safety and to the seriousness of any breach.
10. Some incidents or breaches of regulatory requirements cause
or have the potential to place health and safety at serious
risk. Others may interfere with people’s enjoyment or
rights, or the Service’s ability to carry out its
activities. The Environmental and Consumer Service
first response is to prevent that risk from occurring or
continuing. The enforcement action taken will be
proportionate to the risks posed and to the seriousness of any
breach of the law.
11. Consistency of approach does not mean uniformity, it means
taking a similar approach in similar circumstances to achieve
similar ends. The Environmental and Consumer Service
aims to achieve consistency in, advice tendered, the response to
incidents, the use of powers and decisions on whether to
prosecute.
12. Officers need to take account of many variables; the
scale of impact, the attitude and actions of management and the
history of previous incidents or breaches. Decisions on
enforcement action are a matter of professional judgement and the
Service, through its officers, needs to exercise
discretion. The Environmental and Consumer Service will
continue to develop arrangements to promote consistency including
effective arrangements for liaison with other council services and
enforcing authorities.
13. Transparency is important in maintaining public
confidence in the Service’s ability to regulate. It is
about helping those regulated and others, to understand what is
expected of them and what they should expect from the Environmental
and Consumer Service. It means making clear why an
officer intends to take or has taken enforcement
action. It also means distinguishing between statutory
requirements and advice or guidance about what is desirable or good
practice but not compulsory.
14. Transparency is an integral part of the role of
Environmental and Consumer Service officers. Staff are
trained and procedures developed to ensure that:
- where action is required, it is clearly explained (in writing
and in any requested language or format) why that action is
necessary and when it must be carried out; a distinction
being made between best practice advice and legal
requirements;
- opportunity is provided to discuss what is required to comply
with the law before formal enforcement action is taken, unless
urgent action is required, for example, to deal with a statutory
nuisance which is likely to be of limited duration or a dangerous
structure in imminent danger of collapse;
- written explanation is given of any rights of appeal against
formal enforcement action at the time the action is
taken.
15. Targeting means making sure that regulatory effort is
directed primarily towards those whose activities give rise to the
most serious risk or where the risks are less well
controlled. Action will be primarily focused on those
directly responsible for the risk and who are best placed to
control it.
16. The Environmental and Consumer Service prioritises
regulatory effort. Factors include response to complaints
from the public, the existence of statutory powers and the
assessment of risk (e.g. the potential for a food business to give
rise to food poisoning).
17. Management actions are important in the assessment of
risk. Repeated incidents or breaches of regulatory
requirements which are related may be an indication of an
unwillingness to change behaviour, or an inability to achieve
sufficient control. A relatively low hazard site or
activity poorly managed has potential for greater risk
to public protection and animal welfare than a higher
hazard site or activity where proper control measures are in
place.
18. Where formal enforcement action is necessary the person
responsible should be held to account. Where several
persons share responsibility, the Service will take action against
those who can be regarded as primarily in breach.
19. The Environmental and Consumer Service recognises the use of
the criminal process to institute a prosecution as an important
part of enforcement. It uses discretion in making such
a decision because other approaches to enforcement may equally or
more effectively promote public protection and animal
welfare. Where circumstances warrant, the service will,
however, pursue prosecution without prior warning.
20. The Service will consider prosecution when:
- it is appropriate in the circumstances as a way to draw general
attention to the need for compliance with the law;
- the breach is judged to have been actually or potentially
serious;
- the approach of the offender warrants it, e.g. repeated
breaches, persistent poor standards.
21. The decision to prosecute will also take account of the
evidential and public interest tests set down in the Code for Crown
Prosecutors.
22. The Service will not pursue a prosecution unless satisfied
that there is sufficient, admissible and reliable evidence that the
offence has been committed and there is a realistic prospect of
conviction.
23. Where there is evidence as described above, the
Environmental and Consumer Service will still not pursue a
prosecution unless there are one or more of the following public
interest factors in favour of such actions:
- effect of the offence on local public protection and animal
welfare
- intent of the offender
- history of offending
- attitude of the offender
- deterrent effect of prosecution on the offender and others
- the offence or circumstances leading to it are
foreseeable
24. The courts have considerable scope to punish offenders and
deter others. The Environmental and Consumer Service will
continue to raise the awareness of the courts to the degree of
gravity it considers should be attached to community and
environmental health and safety offences and encourage them to make
full use of their powers.
25. The Service will always seek to recover the costs of
investigation and court proceedings.
26. The Environmental and Consumer Service will consider formal
cautions as an alternative to prosecution. Examples of
where they may be appropriate are:
- to deal quickly and simply with less serious offences
- to divert less serious cases away from the court process
- to deter repeat offences
27. Before a caution is administered the officer will
ensure:
- there is evidence of the offender’s guilt sufficient to sustain
a prosecution
- the offender admits the offence
- the offender understands the nature of the formal caution and
agrees to be cautioned for the offence
28. Formal cautions are administered in accordance with Home
Office guidelines.
29. All documentation associated with this policy and the policy
itself will be made available, on request, in any language or
accessible format.
30. This enforcement policy incorporates and is wholly
consistent with the Enforcement Concordat produced by the
Government’s Better Regulation Task Force as principles of good
regulation, published in April 1999.
