Service standards
Service profile
Environmental Health, Licensing & Trading Standards deliver a wide range of legislative functions aimed at protecting those who visit, work and live on the isle of Wight; they also support and protect legitimate business from illegal competition.
The activities are predominantly statutory in nature, including the enforcement of legislation relating to food safety, workplace health and safety, pollution control, pest control, misdescription of goods or services, product safety, licensing, animal health and welfare, age restricted sales, counterfeit goods, feed, fair trading, doorstep crime and weights & measures. The services also deliver a range of activities to protect victims of financial harm, with particular emphasis on assisting the more vulnerable members of our communities.
Customers
Our customers fall into three main categories
- Those who are subject to regulatory control i.e., mainly the business community which is subject to statutory application of legislation.
- Members of the public/business community who approach the services for assistance or problem investigation.
- Partners in service delivery, including internal partners such as Planning, Housing and external partners such as Police, Health & Safety Executive, Environment Protection Agency, Food Standards Agency.
The service standards focus is predominantly on the first two customer groups.
Service standards
Our aim is to deliver a prompt and efficient quality service, in a courteous manner, leaving the customer in a better position than they were at the outset. We are not an emergency service although at certain times we do have out of hours cover when needs demand, in addition to an Emergency Management Team at the Council.
We have a small but dedicated team of officers who have the appropriate qualifications, skills and experience to deliver the services provided. There are arrangements in place to ensure the ongoing professional competency of all officers.
Where specialist knowledge is required in an area outside of our expertise we will make arrangements, to call on additional resources as necessary.
Many officers undertake more than one function and therefore resources need to be directed on a risk basis and there may be times where this may impact the priority and/or response times.
We will request that before contact with the service is made that users consider whether they have explored informal options to resolve the issue.
General principles
Factors making intervention more likely to be justified
- Significant risk of harm present/imminent (this will consider the vulnerability of a person or any safeguarding concerns)
- Lower risk of harm BUT there has been a significant contravention of the law which puts it in the public interest to intervene AND evidence remains
- Poor history of previous compliance, AND whilst the complaint relates to a low risk matter, may indicate poor controls are in place in other areas of the business
Factors making intervention less likely to be justified
- Although the situation may repeat/worsen, the risk of harm is very low
- Although there may have been an instance of significant risk, it no longer exists and there is no evidence of it available to be gathered
- There is no legislation that we can bring to bear in the circumstances; either because it is outside the remit, or the situation doesn’t contravene legislation
- The matter has already been investigated and a conclusion reached and communicated, and no significant new evidence has arisen.
Expectations from the service
| Service standard topic | Service standard | Measure(s) publicly reported in the QPMR (Quarterly Performance
Monitoring Report) |
| Delivery | The range of planned interventions and the processing of applications/permits is diverse across the services and many delivery requirements are set by statutory framework. The service will set service plans to provide an overview of the planned delivery and these will take into account National guidance, resources, priorities, intelligence and local needs. Trading Standards complaints will initially be dealt with by Citizens Advice Consumer Service in accordance with our service agreement of what referrals will be actioned | Performance indicator monitors the percentage of inspections to highest risk (A-D) due or overdue premises carried out against a target of 86%. Monitor the number of unrated premises as a total, and the number of new registration received in the period. Performance indicator provides The number of current premises licenses The number of new premises licenses issued The number of premises licenses which have been surrendered. |
| Timeliness | The range of service requests received across the services is extremely diverse and some require a more urgent response than others based upon their potential impact. Therefore, the service has response targets ranging from 24 hours to 28 days set against the nature of each service request type. However, as a minimum we will
| Performance indicator on the number of requests coming into the services and monitors the percentage of service requests made to the service from the customer category of 1 and 2 where a response is received within five working days an overall target of 98%. Performance data reports on the money saved from Island residents by the intervention of the Trading Standards Service. This is calculated on a quarterly basis in accordance with a formula developed by the National Trading Standards Scams Team. For non-scam related complaints relating to other goods and services where there has been consumer detriment, if Trading Standards can demonstrate that savings have been made as a result of interventions this will be included within this figure. |
| Accuracy/quality of information | Staff will provide clear and accurate information to all customers accessing the service. The Approved Trader Scheme is a scheme run by Trading Standards, open to any island business trading for at least six months. On application, a business is required to provide certain documents to be audited on conjunction with the main business details when they meet with Trading Standards. Further checks are carried out as part of the audit process including DBS checks (where necessary), credit checks, checking databases for recorded Trading Standards complaints and taking satisfactory references. Approval onto the scheme will only be granted upon satisfactory completion of these required checks. The business will be listed on the website and permitted to use vehicle stickers with the logo showing they are a member, along with displaying the logo on advertising and company documentation. Due to confidentiality or high demand on our services we may not be able to notify every contact of the findings, or the action taken. Action will be taken in accordance with our enforcement policy which can be viewed at Viewing Document: Neighbourhoods Enforcement Policy 2021-2024 (iow.gov.uk) | Performance indicator monitors how many Traders are
approved on the scheme. This is reported every quarter with data retrieved from
our website and payments system for accurate and current membership numbers |
| Complaints | We aim to investigate and respond to complaints about
our service promptly. | We manage complaints through the corporate complaints
procedure |
| Information provision | Main documents relating to the service, such as fees,
enforcement policy and services
are provided on our web pages | The national food hygiene rating publishes the rating
of the food hygiene premises that have been inspected. Monitor on the total % that who have been
inspected are broadly compliant and therefore score 3/4/5 on the scheme. |
| Staff attitude and professionalism | We aim to treat all our customers fairly and with respect and courtesy. |
How we make sure our Standards of Service are met
We routinely monitor our performance against our customer service standards and results are presented to the Council’s senior management team. Publicly reported performance information is available on the QPMR – Quarterly Performance Monitoring Reporting to the Councils Cabinet.
Suggestions for Improving our Standards of Service
We are always pleased to receive suggestions for improving our standards and performance. Use the contact details below to make any suggestions or comments.
Contact
We worked as agile officers and are therefore not always based in a Council office, unless prior arrangement made. The service may be contacted by the following means:
Environmental Health
Email – eh@iow.gov.uk
Phone – 01983 823000 option 2
Trading Standards
Email – trading.standards@iow.gov.uk
Phone – 01983 823000 option 3
Licensing
Email – licensing@iow.gov.uk
Phone – 01983 823159
Or by post to
County Hall
High Street
Newport
Isle of Wight
PO30 1UD