Report To:	Scrutiny & Overview Committee	30th April 2015
Lead Officer:	Director, Health & Environmental Services

Enforcement & Inspection Policy update

Purpose

To update Scrutiny and Overview Committee on the South Cambridgeshire District Council Enforcement & Inspection Policy.

Recommendations

That Scrutiny and Overview Committee comments on and note progress to implement the Enforcement & Inspection Policy.

Background

Following recommendations from a Portfolio Holder Task & Finish Group, SCDC Cabinet agreed a new, corporate Enforcement & Inspection Policy in September 2014. The purpose of this policy is to make clear what residents, communities and businesses in South Cambridgeshire can expect when the Council undertakes enforcement and inspection activities.

Considerations

Following agreement of the new Policy by Cabinet, the following actions have been taken:

The Policy has been publicised to all officers via Corporate Brief.

A corporate policy management group consisting of Director H&ES, Head of Environmental Health & Licensing, Development Control Manager and Affordable Homes Team Leader has been set up to oversee implementation of the Policy. This group meets every 3 months.

Team briefings on the new Policy have taken place with enforcement staff.

Awareness of and compliance with the Policy is being raised with individual enforcement officers as part of 2015 PDR process.

The new Policy has been added to the SCDC public website at https://www.scambs.gov.uk/enforcement-inspection-better-regulation and in the website “A-Z” under “E – Enforcement” and “B – Business Advice”.

Questions concerning the practical use of the Policy are being raised at fortnightly corporate Enforcement & Inspection Tasking & Coordination Group meetings chaired by Head of Environmental Health & Licensing.

Other, more detailed, subject-specific enforcement policies and procedures are being reviewed to ensure they are consistent with the corporate policy. The aim is to complete this work by the end of June 2015.

The Policy has been added to the Member Development Programme for 2015-16 and will be included in briefings for any new Councillors.

To ensure the Policy is applied consistently across the Council, a corporate enforcement process is being developed to include an enforcement policy checklist for all cases and enforcement actions. An officer task & finish group will meet in May 2015 to map current enforcement processes and associated paperwork and to develop this corporate approach.

Following this, “professional practice” training will be arranged for all enforcement staff to refresh their skills and support use of the Policy and new enforcement process.

Implications

No significant implications have been identified.

Effect on Strategic Aims

Aim 1 – Work with partners to create opportunities for employment, enterprise, education, and world-leading innovation.

Aim 2 – Ensure that South Cambridgeshire continues to offer an outstanding quality of life for our residents.

Background Papers

Where the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012 require documents to be open to inspection by members of the public, they must be available for inspection: -

(a)	at all reasonable hours at the offices of South Cambridgeshire District Council;

(b)	on the Council’s website; and

(c)	in the case of documents to be available for inspection pursuant to regulation 15, on payment of a reasonable fee required by the Council by the person seeking to inspect the documents at the offices of South Cambridgeshire District Council.

Cabinet report “Corporate Enforcement & Inspection Policy”, 11th September 2014

http://moderngov/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=293&MId=6277&Ver=4

Report Author:	Mike Hill – Director, Health & Environmental Services

Telephone: (01954) 713229