Agenda item

To present Cabinet with the draft Corporate Enforcement Strategy for endorsement for further consultation.

a)     Cabinet approves the draft Corporate Enforcement Strategy, as attached at Appendix A to item A.5 of the Report of the Portfolio Holder for Enforcement and Community Safety, for further consultation; and

b)     during the consultation, Service Standards be produced, following the example in the Annexe to Appendix A, for consideration and adoption across the Council.

There was submitted a report by the Portfolio Holder for Enforcement and Community Safety (Report A.5), which provided Cabinet with the draft Corporate Enforcement Strategy for its endorsement for further consultation..

Cabinet was informed that the purpose of this Corporate Enforcement Strategy was to set out the overarching “umbrella” principles to apply to all service departments and its officers within the Council which undertook enforcement functions.  The Council’s enforcement responsibilities and powers covered a wide range of legislation with a variety of formal and informal sanctions, which aimed to protect the interests and rights of people in relation to the environment that they used.  The enforcement of regulatory legislation enabled the Council to achieve its priorities contained within the Corporate Plan and fitted with national policy, codes and guidance. 

Members were advised that it was important that those enforcement functions were carried out in an equitable, practical and consistent manner, and that both those subject to regulation and those on whose behalf enforcement was carried out could understand the approach taken. The Strategy would explain clearly and publicly summarise Tendring District Council's intended approach towards enforcement and dealing with non-compliance. 

It was reported that all authorised officers, when making enforcement decisions, would abide by this Strategy, and the supporting documented procedures. This Strategy and a corporate Harm Risk Assessment Checklist/Template would be further developed through external consultation with our partners in the Community Safety Hub and internally with elected Members sitting on the following Committees:

• Licensing and Registration
• Planning
• Community Leadership and Partnership

It was important to note that the Licensing and Registration and Planning Committees retained the legal responsibility and power with regards to enforcement decisions including the proposed adoption of a corporate Harm Risk Assessment Checklist and Template. However, it was intended that some general principles could be agreed across the Council to form a corporate approach and the consultation would be a useful exercise in this regard. The outcome of the consultation would be reported back to Cabinet in early 2017 for consideration in the adoption of the final document.

Cabinet was informed that the draft Strategy accorded with the Government’s ‘Better Regulation Agenda’.  Specifically, it implemented good practice recommended by the Cabinet Office Enforcement Concordat, the Regulators’ Code; and the regulatory principles required under the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006  including the duty to have regard to economic growth.  The provisions of Section 6 of the aforementioned 2006 Act included an expectation that local authorities would publish a clear set of service standards, setting out what those they regulated should expect from them. 

Having considered the suggested approach, it was moved by Councillor G V Guglielmi, seconded by Councillor Turner and:

RESOLVED that

a)    Cabinet approves the draft Corporate Enforcement Strategy, as attached at Appendix A to item A.5 of the Report of the Portfolio Holder for Enforcement and Community Safety, for further consultation; and

b)    during the consultation, Service Standards be produced, following the example in the Annexe to Appendix A, for consideration and adoption across the Council.