The Council has a Generic and an Environmental Health-specific enforcement policy, both of which were developed in consultation with stakeholders from the business sector, private individuals, neighbouring Councils and other interested organisations.
Why Is This Important to You?
The purpose of enforcement is to protect the public, the environment and groups such as consumers and workers. Enforcement can include offering advice and assistance as well as more formal action such as serving notices or taking a prosecution.
Formal enforcement action is usually an option of last resort, except in urgent or emergency cases, but remains an important part of the Council's approach to regulation. Most businesses want to comply with the law and the Council will, whenever possible, try to help businesses meet their legal obligations on the basis that prevention is better than cure.
Enforcement action can make a positive contribution to economic growth by acting against rogue traders and helping to create a level playing field for businesses.
It is important that enforcement action by any regulator is always :
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transparent - i.e. is based on clear, understandable policies.
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accountable - including consultation arrangements and having complaint procedures in place in case things go wrong.
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proportionate to the risk - ensuring that any action we require is not excessive.
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consistent - although authorised staff are expected to exercise judgement in individual cases it is important to maintain consistency.
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targeted where it is needed, i.e. in the areas of greatest risk.
Content of Our Policies
In December 2007 the Government published the Regulator's Compliance Code. This covers a wide range of enforcement activity affecting businesses and sets out requirements for councils. It came into effect on 6th April 2008.
Where this Code does not apply the Council will continue to follow the principles of the Cabinet Office Enforcement Concordat, which we adopted in 2000.
A number of national bodies issue guidance on enforcement action. We take account of this in all our regulatory work.
The Environmental Health enforcement policy covers food safety, health & safety at work, licensing and smoke-free regulatory interventions. All other enforcement is covered by the Council’s Generic policy.
Future Changes
Whenever changes are needed to our enforcement policy we will consult stakeholders and take account of their views. Stakeholders for Environmental Health fall into the following categories –
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business proprietors : this is the group most likely to be the subject of a regulatory intervention, for instance in the areas of food safety or health and safety at work.
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people who make a complaint to us about anything which has a potential to become an enforcement issue. This encompasses the vast majority of our reactive work although only a very small proportion of these cases results in formal enforcement action.
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'offenders' : these will be individual citizens who, perhaps through some form of anti-social behaviour, give rise to complaint and become the subject of a regulatory intervention.
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the Police and local Court Service : the police, local Magistrates and Clerks have an interest in our policy.
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neighbouring local authorities will also be interested, especially in terms of ensuring cross-boundary consistency.
Stakeholder Consultation Process
We last consulted on our enforcement policy in the first half of 2008. Consultation is carried out in the following ways :
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mail shots : an invitation to contribute to the policy development process is offered to businesses and local courts.
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web site : a copy of the revised policies is posted on the Council's web site and responses invited.
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business newsletter : the Council's Economic Prosperity Section publishes a newsletter which is sent to all businesses within the Borough.
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individual discussion during visits to businesses : the issue is raised by inspectors whilst visiting in the course of routine duties and/or when investigating complaints, etc.
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e-mail circulation to neighbouring local authorities and police
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inclusion with customer satisfaction survey questionnaires
Further Information
The Environmental Health enforcement policy can be downloaded by clicking here (opens in new window); there is also a summary leaflet. Printed copies of both can be obtained from the Environmental Health Section free of charge by :
- telephoning 023 9254 5505, 5506, 5507 or 5583 during office hours
Details of the Council's Generic enforcement policy are available from the Council’s Legal and Democratic Support Section (e-mail LADSadmin@gosport.gov.uk) or by clicking here (opens in new window).
