Environmental Enforcement

The enforcement activity of local authorities can vary depending on local political structures.  As unitary authorities, Barnsley and Sheffield are responsible for the full range of enforcement activity, encompassing trading standards, food safety, health and safety and consumer protection.

Put simply, the aim of the Trading Standards aspect of the service is to ensure a safe and fair trading environment for the benefit of businesses and their customers.  Trading Standards teams deal with a wide range of issues: complex fair-trading referrals via Consumer Direct; inspection of weights and measures; enforcement of legislation addressing e.g. underage sales; trade descriptions product safety or food labelling; ensuring the welfare of farm animals and conditions in kennels or catteries; and the responsible retail scheme providing advice and support to traders in preventing under age sales etc.

The overall purpose of food safety and health and safety activity is the protection of public health and most work is governed by statute or national guidelines.  The team are responsible for the promotion and enforcement of Food Safety and Health and Safety standards.  Made up of specialist Health & Safety professionals and Environmental Health Officers who visit and work with employers and employees of businesses, the duties of the teams fall into the following categories:

• Inspection of businesses
• Enforcement of health & safety and Food Safety Hygiene Regulations
• Registration of premises, ranging from hairdressers and beauty therapists, to all food, meat, dairy and fish premises
• Investigation of work related accidents, food poisoning outbreaks and complaints against food premises
• Investigation of complaints from employers, employees and the public
• Providing advice, assistance and training to employers, employees and the public
• The microbiological sampling of food and inspection, detention and seizure of suspect food
• Provision of advice and assistance to businesses, other services within the Council and the general public
• Trading Standards inspections including checking pub measures, weigh bridges, commercial weighing and measuring equipment etc.
• Fair Trading inspections involving checks for counterfeiting and car clocking etc.
• Prosecution of businesses who contravene standards
• Agricultural or general sampling to feed into surveys or measure against national targets

These processes will be supported differently between Barnsley and Sheffield to take account of their different ways of working – illustrating the flexibility of the ReGS approach.

Workflow - To ensure smooth workflow, officers need the facility to access other officers’ inspection lists, and to transfer premises by mutual agreement.

Preparation - Before inspection, officers search and access the premises history and last food safety inspection report often whilst working from home, or away from a permanent office base.

Registration - Food businesses are legally required to register with their local authority by completing and signing a registration form.  The Intelligent Mobile script for inspection begins by validating these details, and allowing any necessary changes to be made and updated on the back office database.  Similarly, license, complaints, risk assessment and premises data can be interrogated in the field, to provide the inspecting officer the most complete picture of the premises or business available.

Inspection - The first inspection screen is populated with information from the back office system including the data required to produce relevant reports as required by professional Codes of Practice.  Officers are given the facility to change these fields and menus as appropriate.  The Intelligent Mobile script then assists the officer in completing the inspection, by grouping relevant items for inspection, and allowing responses and notes to be recorded. The risk rating for the premises can be calculated on site and the Tablet PCs used incorporate a facility to make file notes, diagrams and plans for either inclusion in printed reports provided on site, or storage against back office systems for later use.

Reporting - When the inspection is completed the Officer will be able to print out a report of actions required while on site, and explain appropriate actions and recommendations to the proprietor.  Video clips, or presentations in several languages can be used to provide a more effective support process for proprietors.

Proactive service delivery – By easing the traditionally complex process of inspection through the provision of relevant and complete information to inspectors while on site, service delivery can be made more proactive.  Use of pre-prepared training materials and access to a library of reference materials on the mobile devices used by our staff changes the nature of the inspection process and allow officers to spend more time with business giving advice and guidance.