Environmental Protection Technical Officer • Charnwood Council • £28,226–£30,095 P27
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YOUR INSTITUTE NEEDS YOU! How you can help shape policy
THE MAGAZINE FOR CIEH MEMBERS
www.cieh.org March 2022 Volume 37 Issue 2
WHAT’S NEXT ON THE AGENDA? Moving on from the pandemic
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FOOD ON FILM MEET THE ACTOR AND THE EHO DISHING UP DRAMA FOR THE BIG SCREEN
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Cover, 1
TOP JOB
Contents, 1
MARCH 2022 VERSION
CONTENTS
UP
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22
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH NEWS CIEH
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Editor
16 LIFE AFTER
PRODUCTION
Sarah Kovandzich editor@cieh.org
RESTRICTIONS
Contributing editors
Steve Smethurst, Nicola Smith, Katie Coyne, Mandy Little, Mark Hillsdon
Design
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JANET RUSSELL ON DELIVERING EXCELLENT SERVICES
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05 UPDAT E
COVER: CHRISTIAN BLACK PHOTOGRAPHY. SHUTTERSTOCK
The views expressed in the magazine do not necessarily reflect those of CIEH. All information is correct at the time of going to press.
News Promising housing plans in Levelling Up White Paper; Health and Care Bill amendment; rise in fuel poverty; Morrisons scraps ‘use-by’ dates. Explainer How you can help shape CIEH campaigns and influence government policy.
Articles published in the magazine may be reproduced only with the permission of CIEH and with acknowledgement to EHN. CIEH does not accept responsibility for the accuracy of statements made by contributors or advertisers. The contents of this magazine are the copyright of CIEH. Ideas and letters to the editor are welcome.
EVE RY I S SU E 32 TALES FROM THE FRONT LINE Ray Brassington on life as chair of Cotswold District Council’s planning and licensing committee.
G O ON L I N E Find your next job at www.ehn-jobs.com, and see how to further your career at www.cieh.org
WIN! WWW.CIEH.ORG
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FEATU R E S 12 CHALLENGES BEYOND THE PANDEMIC Climate change, post-Brexit fallout and the cost of living crisis next on the agenda. 14 KITCHEN DRAMA Fact meets fiction on the set of Boiling Point. 16 PUSHING THE ENVELOPE Meet CIEH vice president Janet Russell OBE.
1 9 L EGAL BR I E FI NG Opinion The ramifications of new calorie labelling legislation for the out of home sector. Prosecutions Pests, crush injuries and fly-tipping.
2 2 YOU R CAR E E R H&S The enforcement implications of R v Porter.
COMPLETE EHN’S READER SURVEY FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN AN AMAZON ECHO. VISIT: www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/QXWWJLC 1
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MARCH 2022 VERSION
WELCOME
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War in Ukraine brings concerns about a risk of radiation leaks from Chernobyl 36 years after a catastrophic explosion at the nuclear power plant
ART PRODUCTION CLIENT
A spring in our step as we rise to new challenges
A
SHUTTERSTOCK
W HO’S I NS I DE
JOANNA SEYMOUR “Many people who have been the most affected by COVID are now having to deal with the cost of living crisis and fuel poverty”
THOMAS COOMBES “The rating is one of the first things I look at, even before the customer reviews. I’ve also developed a habit of checking fridge temperatures!”
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WWW.CIEH.ORG
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T THIS TIME OF YEAR,
we’re drawn to the idea of new beginnings. Parks and gardens are awakening with signs of life, our days are getting longer and our clocks going forward give a sense of moving on from the past into better times. Yet, challenges remain, of course. With immediate pressures from COVID-19 lifting, backlogs of essential work are revealed more clearly, so too the looming crises of our time: growing health inequalities, climate change and the causes, effects and consequences of fuel poverty. Some experts share their thinking about this with us in our Beyond the Pandemic feature, page 12. So, as we spring forward, we also step back to the challenges that await. These challenges are ones that the environmental health profession is not only aware of, but is prepared and equipped to
lead on, as exemplified in the response to the pandemic. Part of capitalising on the greater recognition that the profession has started to enjoy – something that our new vice president, Janet Russell, has highlighted – is about continuing to be open, to share the vital work that you are doing. Everything counts – whether it’s sharing work experience opportunities with students in our directory, hosting my new CIEH colleagues for the day as part of their orientation (thank you), or showing film actors the ropes in Hackney, as our colleague Paul Watts has done. So, here’s to new beginnings. But also, here’s to lessons learned and to rising to the challenges that lie ahead.
PHIL JAMES CIEH CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER MARCH 2022 / ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH NEWS 3
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NEWS YOU CAN USE MARCH 2022 Follow us on Twitter
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All homes in the private rented sector will now have to meet a Decent Homes Standard, as they do in the social rented sector
DATA PRODUCTION
FIRST FUNDS
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The government is allocating the first round of its £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund to regeneration projects across the UK. By 2030, it aims to reduce the number of non-decent rented homes by 50%. Homes England will also have its remit expanded to support the regeneration of 20 towns and city centres, starting with Wolverhampton and Sheffield.
Government promises to consult on landlord register
‘80/20 rule’ The ‘80/20 rule’ will also be scrapped
The ‘Levelling Up’ White Paper introduces a range of measures to reduce inequality
SHUTTERSTOCK
“A
STEP IN THE
right direction” is how CIEH described the government’s commitment to improving housing standards and the introduction of a national register for landlords. The proposals were among many included in a White Paper on ‘levelling up’ published on 2 February. The measures include a promise to consult on introducing a landlord register and plans for a crackdown on WWW.CIEH.ORG
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rogue landlords. Furthermore, all homes in the private rented sector will have to meet a Decent Homes Standard, which currently only applies to the social rented sector.
SECTION 21 SCRAPPED
There is also confirmation that Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions will be abolished. Currently, private landlords can repossess their properties from assured shorthold tenants without having to establish fault on the part of the tenant. Research
also suggests that tenants are reluctant to exercise their rights to secure repairs and/or challenge rent increases due to the ease with which landlords can evict them. The Levelling Up White Paper also includes a commitment to the new Social Housing Regulation Bill, which will deliver on the promises the government made following the 2017 Grenfell tower fire. CIEH has campaigned for a commitment to
80%
This sees 80% of funding for housing supply directed at ‘maximum affordability areas’, effectively prioritising the south east
£1.8bn
Much of the previously announced £1.8bn brownfield funding will now be diverted to the north and the Midlands
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CIEH has campaigned for better housing standards
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Government to consult on register
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better housing standards and welcomed the measures outlined in the White Paper. Dr Phil James, CIEH chief executive, said: “There are a number of announcements that we are pleased to see, most notably the government outlining its support for our campaign for a national register of landlords. “Poor-quality housing can put tenants’ lives at risk. Local authorities, tenants and central government all need a better idea of where privately rented properties are located, whether the properties meet basic safety checks and who manages them. Introducing a national landlord register is a no-brainer. We are pleased the government has finally taken a step in the right direction by accepting this necessity and committing to a consultation on this issue.” He added that a new minimum standard for privately rented homes is also welcome, but only if the standards are ambitious and enforceable for local authorities. “We need to see more detail on how the government sets this minimum standard and how local authorities, and our members, will be supported to enforce it,” he said. Other measures outlined in the White Paper include longer-term plans to fight health inequalities and reduce air pollution and carbon emissions. 6 ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH NEWS / MARCH 2022
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Government commits to licensing non-surgical cosmetic treatments CIEH campaign pays off as Health and Care Bill amendment is passed
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IEH PRESIDENT
Julie Barratt has welcomed the government’s decision to license practitioners offering non-surgical cosmetic procedures under new plans to protect patients who have aesthetic treatments such as dermal fillers, chemical peels or laser hair removal. Having campaigned for better regulation and a licensing scheme for practitioners, CIEH’s hard work has been rewarded with an amendment to the Health and Care Bill passed at the beginning of March. Barratt said: “Introducing safeguards and better
regulation to the cosmetics industry in England has been a key goal for CIEH. We strongly welcome the positive engagement we have had with the government on this issue and will continue to work with our partners to help the government build this much-needed regulation.” Rosemary Naylor, environmental health officer at Ipswich Borough Council, told EHN that this is a rapidly expanding sector with an
“enormous and constantly changing” array of treatments on offer. She said: “Regulation has not kept up, which has allowed almost anyone to be able to set themselves up as a cosmetictreatments practitioner with very little or poor-quality training, potentially putting clients at risk of botched procedures that cannot always be reversed. “If implemented effectively this amendment should
“We will continue to work with our partners to help the government build this much-needed regulation” WWW.CIEH.ORG
Rise in fuel poverty is a looming ‘health and social crisis’ A million more households with dependent children will be thrown into fuel poverty from April under the new energy price cap
W
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New legislation should reduce the risk of botched procedures
introduce an agreed set of standards so that consumers can feel confident that the practitioner they are using has completed the necessary accredited training and is competent to carry out the chosen treatment.” Helen Atkinson, senior EHO at Wakefield Council, also welcomed what she described as an ‘overdue’ amendment. She said: “I encourage every local authority to take part in the consultation to ensure the regulations are not exhaustive and take account of the speed at which new treatments are developed.” She urged the HSE to recognise the risk in this sector and, once regulations are in force, include it in the LAC 76/2. She also warned about the potential impact on workload to environmental health and licensing teams. “Decision-makers must provide more resources for this work to be carried out effectively,” she said.
WWW.CIEH.ORG
ITH ENERGY
bills set to triple in April, the CIEH has warned that fuel poverty is a health and social crisis. Urgent action by the government is needed. Work by the independent think-tank the Resolution Foundation has found that the number of households in ‘fuel stress’ – spending at least 10% of their family income on energy bills – is set to triple to 6.3 million households from 1 April, when the new energy price cap takes effect. An i News investigation in January 2022 found that from 1 April a million more households with dependent children will be thrown into fuel poverty. This means around 2.2
million households with children will struggle to pay their energy bills – a rise of 74% from 2019. Tamara Sandoul, CIEH policy and campaigns manager, said: “It is particularly disheartening to hear that so many of those in fuel poverty are families with dependent children. Children are more vulnerable to the effects of living in a cold home. They are more likely to suffer from both physical and mental health conditions as a result. Fuel poverty is a health and a social crisis.
“We need urgent action to help those most in need now”
“We need urgent government action to help those most in need now, alongside long-term and reliable investment in energy-efficiency measures to improve the fabric of our homes.” The End Fuel Poverty Coalition and other organisations wrote to the prime minister in January calling for action to alleviate fuel poverty. They argued the “root cause” of the crisis is the UK’s “heavy reliance on fossil gas for heating and power”, made worse by poor quality housing. They want to see emergency help for the most vulnerable households, such as the expansion of the Warm Home Discount Scheme, funded via a windfall tax on the fossil fuel industry.
DATA
GOING UP
Energy bills are expected to rise by 51% from 1 April, an increase in maximum yearly energy costs from £1,277 to £1,925. The following statistics are from the government’s annual fuel poverty report:
3.16m
homes (13.2%) were believed to be in fuel poverty in 2020, slightly down from
3.18m (13.4%) in 2019
52.1%
of low-income homes achieved an energy efficiency rating of band C or higher, up from
47.8%
in 2019 and 14.6% in 2010
The number of households struggling to pay energy bills is set to rise 74% from 2019
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Morrisons scraps ‘use-by’ dates for ‘best before’ on own-brand milk
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Environmental health at primary authority plays key role in wastereduction initiative
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fourth-largest supermarket chain has replaced ‘use-by’ dates with ‘best before’ on the majority of its own-brand milk. The move, which took effect on 31 January 2022, is designed to stop millions of pints from being thrown away. Ian Goode, senior milk buyer at Morrisons, said: “Good quality well-kept milk has a few days’ life after normal use-by dates and we think it should be consumed, not tipped down the sink.” Morrisons scrapped use-by dates across some of its own-brand yogurt and hard cheese ranges in 2020 and was influenced on milk by
sustainability charity WRAP, which suggests that almost 300,000 tonnes is wasted from UK homes each year. Under Regulation (EU) 1169/2011, best before is the date at which the consumer can expect food to maintain its best quality (assuming all correct storage conditions are met). Use-by is when the food becomes classified as highly perishable and constitutes an immediate danger to human health.
PRODUCTION
WORKING WITH TRADING STANDARDS
CLIENT
Morrisons’ primary authority is Wakefield in West Yorkshire. Helen Atkinson, senior EHO at Wakefield Council, explained that the work with Morrisons was relatively straightforward as its own-brand milk is mostly supplied by Arla. She said: “We’re also Arla’s primary authority and had
Charity says 300,000 tonnes of drinkable milk is wasted each year
issued advice in October 2019 that it could swap to a best-before date on its own brands of milk, such as Cravendale and BoB (Best of Both). It took a lot of work to reach that point and it was a collaboration between environmental health and Trading Standards. As most of Morrisons’ own-brand milk has been through the same process in the Arla dairy, we were able to issue assured advice to them in May 2021.” Atkinson said the ‘farm to retail’ process has to be robust. “You have to know that it’s
safe, that it complies with legislation and it’s not a public health issue. As long as there are good manufacturing processes, controls and monitoring, you’re reducing risk to a minimum.” Kate Thompson, CIEH director for Wales, added her support for initiatives to reduce food waste and tackle climate change. However, she said CIEH has some reservations about the possible consequences of the Morrisons move. “Where it can be scientifically evidenced that food production techniques support the application of a longer shelf life, this could be an option to minimise waste, rather than applying a best-before date, which has attracted so much attention and caused some confusion. Confusion will likely continue if different producers adopt different approaches.”
SEWAGE WILL NO LONGER BE TOLERATED, OFWAT TOLD
Ofwat is the regulator, not a cheerleader for water companies, says charity
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The Rivers Trust, an umbrella body for 65 member trusts, has welcomed the government’s strategic policy statement (SPS) setting out what the economic regulator Ofwat is expected to do to encourage water companies to clean up their act, but says it doesn’t go far enough and lacks clarity and detail. Christine Colvin, The Rivers Trust’s director for partnerships
and communications, said the SPS represents a “very fundamental shift” in how Ofwat regulates, and made it clear pollution, especially sewage, “will no longer be tolerated”. But she called for “more specifics on enforceable mechanisms”. The SPS suggests there will be greater transparency and sharing of data, but the charity notes the practicalities are unclear.
“The SPS represents a fundamental shift in how Ofwat regulates” WWW.CIEH.ORG
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Want to shape CIEH campaigns and influence government policy? BY STEVE SMETHURST
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IEH IS RECRUITING
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volunteers to sit on its five Policy and Campaigning Advisory Panels. The panels have played a key role in the development of CIEH’s policy positions and campaigning work over the past four years, with members working closely with CIEH’s policy and campaigning team to influence the government and raise awareness of the profession. The positions are open to members who are senior practitioners, with relevant experience and knowledge in their field. The panels mirror the core areas of environmental health: food; housing; environmental protection; health and safety; and public health. There is also the likelihood of sub-groups to support specific projects, such as cosmetics regulation and climate change. CIEH’s policy and campaigns manager, Tamara Sandoul, says: “The people we’re looking for will be aware of developments in their area, see the bigger picture and be an advocate for the profession. They will work hand in hand with us on a range of projects to promote the work of Environmental Health Practitioners (EHPs), campaign on issues to improve people’s health, and help to create better tools for professionals and raise the profile of CIEH. “We’re looking for advice to inform policy positions and campaigns, and for input into consultations and inquiries. We will also want to speak to you about current events to ensure EHN captures all the important issues. “There will be the opportunity to contribute to articles and write blogs. We will also call on you to join as a speaker or commentator at our online webinars. If this sounds like something you would like to be involved in, please do put yourself forward.”
“We’re looking for advice to inform policy positions and campaigns”
FIND OUT MORE
Visit www.cieh.org/policy/advisory-panels for details. The deadline for applications is 11 April 2022 WWW.CIEH.ORG
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The panels cover core areas of EH: food, housing, environmental protection, H&S and public health
PAN E L M E M BE RS EHN asked four current panellists for their insights into the role
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Lynda Stefek, senior manager, air quality & environment, Transport for Greater Manchester “The role is what you make of it. You are asked to contribute your expertise, but the time commitment is managed by you. It provides the opportunity to influence policy at a national level and participation opens doors to national consultation working groups, which you would otherwise not necessarily have known about or have the opportunity to attend.”
HOUSING
Julie Liversidge, operations manager, housing licensing & compliance, Nottingham City Council “As an example of what we do, we have been commenting on the Housing Health and Safety Rating System review, which gives us the
opportunity to influence the government’s plans prior to them being published. We have also been working as a group to influence the landlords’ register and national property standards. We offer a regional perspective that is invaluable to the policymakers and thinkers based in London.”
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Matthew Clark, programme manager – air quality, Hertfordshire County Council “I’ve been involved in forming the CIEH policy on air quality and provided input on a revision of the Code of Practice on Environmental Noise Control at Concerts. I’ve also had the opportunity to present at conferences on behalf of CIEH. If you are passionate and strive for a more ambitious policy and legislative backdrop to enable progression to a healthier
future for our communities and our environment, your contribution here can extend your reach.”
HOUSING
Carlene Thomas, Setting the Standard senior inspection officer, Commissioning Alliance “As well as shaping policy, there are opportunities to attend meetings with stakeholders to represent CIEH, particularly where panel members have a specialist subject area. For example, I attended an HSE and MHCLG brainstorming session to map out and influence legislation and guidance following the Grenfell fire. I also met with policy officers from the London Fire Brigade to answer their questions on licensing and other exemptions under housing legislation. If you would like to help CIEH improve housing conditions and the lives of our vulnerable residents, this is for you.”
MARCH 2022 / ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH NEWS 11
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Serving up public safety measures is just one task on EHOs’ agenda
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BEYOND THE PANDEMIC
As COVID-19 transitions from pandemic to endemic, where does that leave environmental health and what challenges face the profession next? BY MARK HUNTER
W
E HAVE, OF
course, been here before. It is 18 months (and 130,000 COVID-19 deaths) since EHN ran its first ‘Guiding business out of lockdown’ special. In the intervening period, environmental health teams have faced surges and mutations in the virus, false dawns when the pandemic seemed to be petering out before roaring back to life, and a glut of regulations that offered as much confusion as they did protection. Now the regulatory approach to COVID is over. The ‘Living with COVID-19’ plan announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson last month removed all remaining domestic restrictions in England, including the legal requirement to self-isolate after a positive test. Self-isolation support 12 ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH NEWS / MARCH 2022
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payments, routine contact tracing and the requirement for close contacts who have not been vaccinated to self-isolate have also been shelved. April sees an end to all free symptomatic and asymptomatic testing for the general public. The Contain Outbreak Management Fund (COMF), which provided local authorities with £400m to support local public health through the pandemic, has been discontinued.
“Local authority powers are insufficient without some dedicated resource to control the spread of infection” JIM MCMANUS
PUBLIC HEALTH WARNING
Unfortunately, while restrictions and funding may have disappeared, the virus itself has not. Local government and public health bodies have warned against complacency and stressed that as the vaccinated public’s immunity wanes and new variants of COVID-19 emerge, further outbreaks are likely. According to Jim McManus, vice president of CIEH and president of the Association of Directors of Public Health, environmental health teams will be at the forefront of public health measures dealing with any future outbreaks. However, to do this effectively they must be allowed to retain the personnel and expertise that have been assembled during the pandemic. “There is going to be a continuing role for EH teams in sharing their expertise with the public sector and with business in keeping WWW.CIEH.ORG
everyone safe as the restrictions are lifted,” he says. “But as things stand there are a number of people who are going to be made redundant and we will lose a lot of very valuable expertise. Some local authorities have used up all their COMF funding while others have some left. My view is that we need some form of transitional funding so that we can keep hold of that expertise. Local authority powers are insufficient without some dedicated resource to control the spread of infection.” McManus also believes that testing and surveillance should remain in place for COVID-19. “We have this for every other infectious disease of note and we should also have it for COVID-19.”
CORE ROLE
As director of public health at Hertfordshire County Council, McManus is concerned that the complete removal of COVID-19 restrictions may reduce the protection his teams are able to offer the public. Nevertheless, he believes that the pandemic has strengthened environmental health teams and cemented their role at the heart of public health. “One thing COVID has done has been to increase the emphasis on knitting environmental health together with the rest of public health as a core service,” he says. “That’s something that has always been implicit, but which has now become a little more explicit, and that’s a very good thing. “Here in Hertfordshire we have really seen the best of EHOs during COVID. They are and must remain very much at the heart of the public health family. They have taken to hybrid working and adopted new ways of doing things, many of which will remain in place. But of course everyone is tired and we will need a transition period before things can really get back to normal.” It seems likely that many of the new working practices adopted by EH teams during the pandemic, such as hybrid working, virtual meetings and the innovative use of digital devices, will continue even after things start to get back to normal.
POST-PANDEMIC PARTNERS
Jonathan Hayes, risk director at Moto Hospitality, sees this as an opportunity to promote greater trust and cooperation between businesses and local authority environmental health teams. WWW.CIEH.ORG
New technology can help EH teams and businesses work together
“The pandemic has left local authorities with a backlog of inspections, which isn’t a reflection on EH teams or on the businesses involved. But perhaps in clearing that backlog we can look to build up the trust and partnership between EH teams and businesses,” he says. “I’d like to see a move towards more autonomy for those businesses with internal inspection and compliance systems. It’s also incumbent on us to explore different ways of working and new technology. Most of my compliance systems are now electronic and can be accessed online from anywhere. You don’t have to make a site visit.” Hayes welcomes the removal of COVID-19 restrictions, although he would prefer free testing to remain. “The loss of lateral flow testing is a bit of a blow. We are going to be looking to people’s personal responsibility to consider whether they should be in the workplace with respiratory symptoms. “But for business, I see the easing of restrictions as a positive thing – a sign that we are moving away from fear and towards a time when we can view COVID as another workplace hazard, like food poisoning, that we have to mitigate against.
“I’d like to see a move towards more autonomy for businesses with internal inspection and compliance systems” JONATHAN HAYES
“Now that most of the population is triple vaccinated and the mortality rate is much lower than it was, we can begin to think of COVID as just another respiratory illness.”
LOOMING CRISES
While it may be too soon to be thinking of life after COVID, many environmental health professionals view the pandemic as just one of a number of looming crises that threaten public health. Climate change, post-Brexit fallout, the cost of living crisis and fuel poverty are all jostling for their place at the top of the agenda. Joanna Seymour, head of partnerships and development at the community interest company Warm Wales, is eager to ensure that lessons learned during the pandemic are applied wherever else they are needed. “There’s no doubt that COVID has increased health inequalities and many people who have been the most deeply affected by COVID are now having to deal with the cost of living crisis and with fuel poverty,” she says. “There is help available through community hubs, but many of these have been set up with COVID funding. So we need to ensure that that funding doesn’t just disappear but gets transferred across to areas like the cost of living crisis.” Nevertheless, Seymour believes that the pandemic has left public health agencies better equipped to deal with these challenges. “Remote working has completely changed the way we communicate with each other and with other groups in the community,” she says. “We’ve been able to reach out to many more organisations and government bodies than we would have been able to do face to face.” MARCH 2022 / ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH NEWS 13
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Beyond the pandemic, 1
After COVID-19
Interview VERSION REPRO OP
UNDER PRESSURE
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Boiling Point actor Thomas Coombes and senior EHO Paul Watts from Hackney Council discuss a day in the life of a real and a fictional food inspector BY SARAH KOVANDZICH
PRODUCTION CLIENT
I
T’S JUST BEFORE CHRISTMAS AND HEAD CHEF ANDY JONES
(played by Stephen Graham) already has the world on his shoulders when he arrives for work at his upmarket restaurant. He’s late – and the last thing he needs is to find environmental health officer Mr Lovejoy (played by Thomas Coombes) in his kitchen. The next 10 minutes of British film Boiling Point involve a whirlwind inspection by the jovial Mr Lovejoy, who fires questions at the kitchen staff in a polite yet slightly annoying manner. The scene culminates in Lovejoy sitting down with chef Jones to go through his HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) folder and presenting him with his hygiene rating sticker. It’s been downgraded – and it’s just one of a series of pressures the chef will face that night.
THOMAS COOMBES, ACTOR
How did the idea of shadowing an EHO come about?
Hackney-based restaurant Jones and Sons (the establishment in the film) and its owner, Andy Jones, knew of Paul and put me in touch with him.
Had you heard of environmental health before that?
I was only vaguely aware of it so I jumped at the chance to shadow Paul. Authenticity is key and we wanted to immerse the audience in this world. If anyone or anything stood out as inauthentic or jarred, it would take the viewer out of the experience we were trying to create.
Was the job as you imagined?
I didn’t have any major expectations, but it did hammer home what an important job it is. I had no idea how integral the paperwork would be, in terms of proving you run a safe and hygienic business – but if places are 14 ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH NEWS / MARCH 2022
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only visited once a year or so, they need to keep proof of how they run things.
What else did you do to prepare for the role?
I watched a few documentaries, but shadowing Paul was by far the most helpful. We had a basic outline of story and character but our director wanted to make it a real collaboration with the actors so we all had input into our characters.
Was anything in the Boiling Point script changed as a result of your experience?
The script was more a list of incidents and bullet points that we had to hit. Through layers of improvisation and research, we fleshed out the world and characters. There were lots of lines and bits of information that I used from watching Paul.
“I gained a massive amount of respect for the profession from watching Paul work”
THOMAS COOMBES “Paul emphasised that it was important to be approachable, so that people felt comfortable being honest with him”
‘Andy’ gets marked down mainly for the paperwork. I used a lot of specifics from watching Paul – the lines that ended up in the film about “big gaps” and “Who usually fills this in?” are all taken from him.
How far did you base the character of Mr Lovejoy on Paul?
The inspector I played was rather less personable than Paul so I wouldn’t say it was heavily based on him. Paul emphasised that it was important to be friendly and approachable, so that people felt comfortable opening up about problems, and being honest with him.
What were the challenges of filming your part in a single shot?
The main challenge was to put ourselves in the mindset that this was like life. You can’t call ‘cut’ in real life. More than any other character, I think I had the most technical jargon, just by the very nature of his job. It was important to keep it fresh, free, alive WWW.CIEH.ORG
Boiling Point, 1
PAUL WATTS, SENIOR EHO
How were you approached to do the shadowing?
I’d inspected the restaurant where the film is set – it’s a real restaurant in Hackney and I knew Andy Jones who ran it. They retained his name for the film. He’s done some acting himself. It’s really good for the profession that they thought to include a food inspector. The last time I recall seeing one was in Fawlty Towers in the 70s.
When did you meet Thomas?
In March 2020. He came to the office and we talked about the job of an EHO. The producers sent me a script too so I could see what he was going to do in that role. He’d done a bit of homework himself and we looked at various things like paperwork – I showed him a Safer Food, Better Business (SFBB) pack and the range of hygiene rating stickers and what they meant. Then we looked at things like inspection reports and forms and some of the HACCP sheets you might see on the premises – like temperature recordings and a cleaning schedule. We went over a bit of the law too and common questions you might ask when looking at a small kitchen. PAUL WATTS “Thomas had taken some of the stock phrases and some of the rudiments of what we did and put that into practice”
and improvised – but at certain moments I had to recall the exact terminology.
YELLOWBELLY PHOTOS, CHRISTIAN BLACK PHOTOGRAPHY.
How did your experience make you feel about EHOs?
Shadowing Paul, I became very aware what a vital role EHOs play and, obviously, they can’t be every restaurant owner’s best friend. They need to be honest in their assessments and take the necessary steps to protect the public – they’re literally dealing with life or death. Because of this, I’m sure they’re not always the most popular figures, but I gained a massive amount of respect for the profession from watching how Paul worked.
Did the experience make you feel differently about eating out?
It did indeed! The rating is now one of the first things I look at, even before the customer reviews. I’ve also developed a habit of checking friends’ and family’s fridge temperatures! WWW.CIEH.ORG
Where did you take Thomas?
We arranged to go to a restaurant that was up for inspection, but they didn’t know he was an actor – I introduced him as a trainee so it was like the real thing. I got him to do things like temperature monitoring of fridges and of some food they were cooking. He also had a torch and looked behind the fridges and freezers, asking about their pest control. He asked about training and if they had a SFBB pack, which he looked at. I wanted to involve him in the dialogue with the owners.
Is the restaurant in the film representative of local businesses in Hackney? Thankfully, as new entrepreneurial businesses are coming in, the ‘old brigade’ have moved away. We used to close a lot of premises but that doesn’t happen significantly any more. Businesses are much better informed so it’s almost a pleasure to go and inspect them.
What were the most important things you were able to show Thomas?
I tried to equip him with what he would actually see in a small kitchen on a basic hygiene inspection – so looking at management systems and monitoring, how people engage with staff and homing in on risk by looking at temperature control,
FULL FLAVOUR Mr Lovejoy (Coombes) turns up the heat on commis chef Freeman (Ray Panthaki)
“It’s really good for the profession that they thought to include a food inspector” training and the like. He came up with the score I would have given the premises.
What did you think of his scene in the film?
Thomas was fantastic. I liked the way he transformed what we did into the event on camera. He had taken some of the stock phrases he’d learned and some of the rudiments of what we did and put that into practice. He was trying to be friendly with some of the kitchen staff too – trying to elicit information from them but also asking pertinent questions and looking at the gaps in their HACCP. He also did the debrief – sitting down with the owner and introducing the food hygiene rating. We would probably stay longer to talk to an owner, but on film he hadn’t got that long. It was on the edge of being spiky too. He was almost annoying and a bit condescending, which was funny and added to the growing tension of the film.
What was working with Thomas like?
We got on well. He’s very personable and jovial and engaged well with people. With training, he could easily do the job!
CAR E E R H IG H L IG H T S Paul Watts is senior environmental health officer at Hackney Council, where he has worked for 39 years. He has been an examiner for CIEH, lectured at King’s College and Middlesex University, and worked as a science moderator for Edexcel and an examiner for the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was also on the Public Health Covid Team.
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Janet Russell OBE is the latest in a long list of environmental health experts bringing their experience to CIEH in the role of vice president. And she’s no stranger to the institute BY STEVE SMETHURST
CLIENT
DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY
She says at Kirklees she was fortunate to be surrounded by wonderful, supportive staff “who were happy to push the envelope and do things differently in order to deliver a better service”. As an example, she says that they were able to set up a business advice unit and a ‘better health at work’ initiative many years before government caught up with the philosophy. Kirklees also ran the largest free home-insulation scheme in the country, which provided loft- and 16 ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH NEWS / MARCH 2022
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cavity-wall insulation to more than 150,000 households in the borough. Janet says she always felt that having a quality core of environmental health officers was fundamental to delivering excellent and responsive services to residents and nothing has changed her mind about this. Her time at Kirklees also gave her the confidence to aim high in her career: “I spent six years on the CIEH General Council, which was an opportunity to be involved in setting strategy and budget, as well as influencing the direction of the profession. It made me realise the value of contributing to the furtherance of environmental health with government departments.” This culminated in her being appointed president of CIEH from 2012-14.
PORTFOLIO WORKER
The past decade has seen Janet evolve into a portfolio worker. “I have been fortunate to be able to mix paid work with voluntary positions,” she says, adding the important proviso that she will only consider work that is about improving health, safety or the environment. She is currently Councils’ regulatory services have played a key role in supporting communities and businesses during the pandemic. For examples visit bit.ly/LGACaseStudies
AHEAD OF ITS TIME Kirklees Council, where Janet Russell spent much of her EH career, ran the largest free home-insulation scheme in the country
employed by the Office for Product Safety and Standards, looking at how regulatory services are building resilience in these challenging times. She says: “If we are to thrive as a profession it is really important to have a flow of talent who can confidently lead the future direction of work in both the public and private sector.” Janet is also a director of YES Energy Solutions, a communityinterest company looking at how to alleviate fuel poverty and improve energy efficiency. A third role is as a trustee for the Safer Tourism Foundation, a charity whose aim is to reduce the number of preventable deaths, injuries and illnesses occurring to British tourists travelling abroad. “We work with the travel industry to improve health and safety for travellers, WWW.CIEH.ORG
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distinguished CV to her name (see right), it’s a surprise to hear Janet Russell say that she had “no idea what environmental health was” when she was taken on at 18 by Wakefield Council. As one of its first two female students, she soon learned to stand on her own two feet in what was then a male-dominated office. It was on moving to neighbouring Kirklees Council that Janet really got to grips with the area that would dominate her career. “I spent most of my environmental health career at Kirklees,” she says. “It’s where I first became involved with CIEH as branch secretary and then in the Yorkshire and Humber regional set-up. It proved a great opportunity to work with colleagues to organise professional development and to respond to government consultations.”
VP Janet Russell, 1
CAR E E R H IG H L IG H T S JANET RUSSELL OBE has worked in local government for 35 years, culminating in more than a decade as strategic director at Kirklees Council in West Yorkshire. She has gained a national reputation in regulatory and environmental policy and delivery, serving on several government advisory groups and task forces. This includes 10 years on the Better Regulation Task Force, leading initial work on licensing reform. More recently, she spent 18 months working with the Department of Health and Social Care on the country’s COVID-19 response.
and we raise awareness of risk among the travelling public so that people can help to keep themselves safe and well when they are on holiday,” she says.
THE NEED TO WORK TOGETHER
Janet’s most high-profile work, however, has been the 10 years spent as the only public sector member of the Better Regulation Task Force and the 18 months with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) focusing on the UK’s COVID response. She is now continuing this work with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. She says her environmental health background and understanding of applying regulation was invaluable during this period. “Working for DHSC was challenging in that I was at the interface of clashing cultures. Local authorities who knew best how to deliver services to their communities and who were at the forefront of trying to identify and contain outbreaks, and government who were quickly scaling up services on a ‘one-size-fits-all’ basis. I spent a lot of time trying to explain to WWW.CIEH.ORG
government project managers how local government could deliver for them, if they allowed some flexibility,” she says. Eventually this paid off. Janet explains that it was towards the end of 2020 that it started to become clear to government departments the vital role environmental health and regulatory services could play in delivering the COVID response. “The wise departments started to involve environmental health in early thinking when developing programmes, understanding that this would secure a better chance of achieving good outcomes. “While I have admiration for many civil servants in their capacity to develop policy, most do not have the experience of the delivery of regulation in the community or business and equally do not have the grasp
“I know the value of environmental health in protecting communities and promoting a sustainable future”
of local politics. Both skills are needed and my big learning point is that government policy leads and practitioners need to work closely together.” As part of this, she has joined the new Association of Chief EHOs, which will engage on a practical level with government. She adds that she would be interested to hear from any EHO who is working on policy in any government department or agency.
A VOICE FOR THE PROFESSION
As for the new CIEH role, Janet says she hopes the group can work together to enhance the reputation of environmental health. She says: “Having spent a number of years working at local government and advising national government, I know the value and importance of environmental health in protecting our communities and promoting a sustainable future. “There is a real opportunity to engage on a practical level with government and I will do what I can to ensure that environmental health professionals have a voice with policymakers.” MARCH 2022 / ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH NEWS 17
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Calories in the spotlight Assessing the implications of calorie labelling in the out of home sector
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Written by SIAN EDMUNDS
SHUTTERSTOCK, LISA MALTBY
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Displaying calories is soon to be mandatory for large food businesses in England, but will it help to reduce obesity?
S PART OF THE UK
government’s drive to combat obesity, from 6 April food businesses in England with 250 or more employees must provide calorie information for non-prepacked food or drink which is suitable for immediate consumption. The Calorie Labelling (Out of Home Sector) (England) Regulations 2021 (the ‘Regulations’) apply to a wide range of businesses, including restaurants, cafes, pubs, bakeries, fast food outlets, contract caterers and home delivery services. Businesses operating under a franchise agreement are also caught as the Regulations treat the franchisee as part of the franchisor for the purpose of calculating numbers of employees. Small, independent food businesses will not have to follow the Regulations.
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Certain categories of food are excluded from the Regulations, including fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, cheese and fish, bread and single unprocessed products (such as nuts and seeds). Food which is on the menu for fewer than 30 consecutive days and a total of 30 days in any one year is also excluded. The following information must be displayed prominently and clearly at the point of choice: a) The energy content of the food in kilocalories (kcal) b) The size of the portion to which the calorie information relates c) A statement of daily calorie needs, being ‘adults need around 2,000 kcal a day’. Point of choice includes physical and online menus, food delivery platforms and product labels. Where food is chosen from a
menu, the information at a) and b) above must be displayed next to the description or the price of the food concerned. Where food is on display, it must be set out on a label next to, or close to, each item of food and in such a way that the label can be read easily. The statement of daily calorie needs must be displayed on each page of a menu or prominently at the point of choice if there is no menu.
FAILURE TO COMPLY Businesses that fail to comply with the Regulations can be issued with an improvement notice by the relevant local authority. A failure to comply with an improvement notice can incur a fixed monetary penalty. Local authorities have discretion in how they enforce the Regulations and are required to issue MARCH 2022 / ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH NEWS 19
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Legal briefing/Prosecutions, 1
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Almost a quarter of an adult’s daily intake
PRO S ECUT IONS This month’s selection of interesting cases and the lessons learned
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Filthy conditions and evidence of rodents led to a zero food hygiene rating
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guidance setting out the approach they intend to take. One area of difficulty in enforcing the Regulations is assessing the accuracy of calorie information. Some methods of assessment, such as laboratory analysis, can be burdensome and expensive. Consequently, government guidance states that it is expected that enforcement officers will take account of the method used to generate the calorie information and that they will give due consideration to the constraints and variability caused by the different approaches. There is no expectation that enforcement action will be taken if the enforcement officer considers the method used to calculate calorie information is appropriate and the calorie content displayed is within a range of plus or minus 20% of the actual total, or what the officer considers feasible.
IMPACT ON OBESITY The jury is out on whether the Regulations will have a significant impact on reducing obesity. Calorie information is already displayed on prepacked goods and there is much debate about whether this works or even whether measuring calories on their own is a helpful measure in any event. In the meantime, this is another area of food labelling for underresourced local authorities to have to grapple with.
Sian Edmunds is a partner at Burges Salmon LLP 20 ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH NEWS / MARCH 2022
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Tip-off alerts council to Chinese takeaway’s longterm rat infestation AUTHORITY: Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council DEFENDANT: Food business operator Xia Hui Xiao OUTCOME: £1,600 fine, £697.50 costs, £160 victim surcharge OFFENCES UNDER: The Food Hygiene (Wales) Regulations 2006
THE STORY In August last year, an unannounced inspection of The Aberfan Chinese takeaway was carried out in response to a complaint made to the council. A concerned member of the public had reported seeing rats in the yard behind the takeaway. The inspection by environmental health officer Joseph Gibbons revealed clear evidence of rat infestation, and identified other immediate hygiene concerns at the business. In the food storeroom, the inspector discovered evidence of a rats’ nest and a bag of poison on the floor, presumably placed there to tackle the infestation. He also found serious defects in the structure of the premises which allowed rodents to gain entry easily. Gibbons also found that the kitchen was dirty, and food was being exposed to contamination. HOW IT PLAYED OUT Due to the shocking conditions at the eatery and evidence that the owner had been failing to deal with
the rat infestation for a long period of time, swift action was taken. A hygiene emergency prohibition notice was served to immediately close the business until the necessary improvements were made. The business was also handed a zero food hygiene rating. In January this year food business operator Xia Hui Xiao attended Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates’ Court. She pleaded guilty to nine charges of breaching The Food Hygiene (Wales) Regulations 2006. The Aberfan Chinese was allowed to reopen after addressing the issues found in the inspection to remove the imminent risk to public health. LESSONS LEARNED Gibbons said: “I found that engaging the services of an interpreter at the outset of this case was really important to ensure that the remedial works requested to be carried out were understood and completed to an agreed timescale.” He added: “It was challenging having to prepare a prosecution case while continuing to respond to the pressures of the pandemic, especially as we are a small team tasked with many other statutory functions to enforce.” WWW.CIEH.ORG
Legal briefing/Prosecutions, 2
Scaffolding company ordered to pay more than £515k after worker’s leg crushed AUTHORITY: Babergh District Council DEFENDANT: Brisko Scaffolding Ltd OUTCOME: £500,000 fine, £15,527.65 costs, £170 victim surcharge OFFENCES UNDER: Section 2(2)(a,c) and contrary to section 33(1) (a,c,g) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and of Regulation 3(1)of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
THE STORY In November 2019 an employee at Brisko Scaffolding Ltd’s base in Sproughton, Suffolk suffered serious crush injuries to his leg while helping a colleague move a bundle of steel, weighing around 1.1 metric tonnes, using a forklift truck. Officers from Babergh District Council visited the company to carry out an inspection. HOW IT PLAYED OUT Officers found a lack of health and safety measures in place and served the steel stockholder company with a prohibition notice, preventing the movement of whole stacks of steel bundles in one go. However, further evidence provided by the injured employee showed the company had failed to comply with the notice.
Worker pays a heavy price for firm’s poor steel handling practices
A meticulous investigation commenced, led by Jane Gartland, food and safety officer at Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils. In February Brisko Scaffolding Ltd pleaded guilty and was sentenced for multiple health and safety offences at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court. The company was ordered to pay a total of £515,527.65 including costs and a victim surcharge of £170. LESSONS LEARNED Gartland said: “Investigating an accident in a workplace of which I had
Fly-tipping students tracked down and fined £1,700 AUTHORITY: South Gloucestershire Council DEFENDANTS: Azhar Beelontally, Rayhan Chowdhury OUTCOME: £1,692 combined fine, £403 costs OFFENCES UNDER: Section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990
HAD A SUCCESSFUL PROSECUTION? Please tell us about it: email editor@cieh.org
WWW.CIEH.ORG
Address details among the rubbish helped the Envirocrime team find the culprits
THE STORY In spring last year officers launched an investigation after an unsightly mound of items, including furniture, a mattress and black bags of rubbish, was dumped in Station Road, Patchway, South Gloucestershire. The council’s StreetCare team cleared the eyesore away, and found evidence among it relating to student accommodation half a mile away. HOW IT PLAYED OUT Amie Copley, built environment enforcement manager, said that by working with StreetCare colleagues, they were able to link the dumped items to Azhar Beelontally and Rayhan Chowdhury who had lived at the student accommodation. Copley said: “Although they had moved, we were able to track them down and interview them.” Both men were interviewed by the council’s Envirocrime team and admitted their roles in the fly-
little experience was challenging. However, the HSE’s guidance note 246 ‘Safety in the storage and handling of steel and other metal stock’ became my bible. The use of basic principles made it clear that the risk gap was significant, and that formal action had to be taken.” She added that the key to the successful prosecution was: “Meticulous investigation and adherence to our enforcement policy, to ensure no procedural weaknesses could be exploited by the company’s legal team.”
tipping. At Bristol Magistrates’ Court this February Beelontally (22) of Tadworth, Surrey, and Chowdhury (21) of Dagenham, London, pleaded guilty. Beelontally was fined £1,015, and Chowdhury was ordered to pay £677. In addition, they were told they must both cover the £403 in costs. LESSONS LEARNED “We are pleased the courts recognised that both individuals were culpable for the fly-tip despite one of them claiming he drove the
car and wasn’t involved in physically dumping the waste,” Copley said. She added that as the dumped rubbish was a short distance from a recycling centre, the case made clear how easy it would have been for the fly-tippers to dispose of their waste lawfully. She said: “We hope that by highlighting cases such as this, individuals are deterred from fly-tipping in South Gloucestershire by our unrelenting commitment to tracking down perpetrators and securing convictions.” MARCH 2022 / ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH NEWS 21
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YOUR VERSION
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Why R v Porter could change your approach when assessing health and safety cases
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Written by RICHARD FERRARI
HE LANDMARK
case R v Porter [2008] EWCA Crim 1271 has changed my approach to health and safety enforcement. The significance of this case was a key learning point from my NCRQ (National Compliance and Risk Qualifications) diploma training. This is my own interpretation of the judgement based on my training and aims to refresh other EHOs on its potential application to other health and safety cases.
THE BACKGROUND R v Porter is particularly applicable to non-employee S3 Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSWA) issues in shops, open spaces and other premises. A three-and-three-quarters year-old child at a private school fell down some well-maintained steps between two playgrounds, 22 ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH NEWS / MARCH 2022
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injured his head and went to hospital. While in hospital, he contracted MRSA (Methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus) and died. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) required a gate to be put in place between the playgrounds at the top of the steps and prosecuted the owner. However, the HSE prosecution was overturned at the Court of Appeal. The first point below was the main reason the prosecution was unsuccessful, but the other points were mentioned by the judge as significant. The questions posed in bold could be applied to other cases.
1. IS THERE REAL RISK, NOT TRIVIAL OR FANCIFUL? School steps could be termed an ‘everyday’ risk because if a risk is all around us, as steps are – in
the home, on the streets, even in other areas of the school grounds – this risk can’t be guarded against in every case, even with quite young children. The issue of reasonable practicability doesn’t arise, because there is no risk that needs to be guarded against under S3 HSWA.
2. WHAT IS THE OVERALL BALANCE OF RISK REDUCTION WHEN APPLYING A CONTROL? The gate required by the HSE partly obscured the view of the bottom playground from the supervising teacher at the top. The gate increased one risk (inability to supervise effectively) while decreasing another (nursery age children going down to the lower playground). Here, reasonable practicability would come into play – the balance between the reduction in risk and the time, WWW.CIEH.ORG
SHUTTERSTOCK, LISA MALTBY
CLIENT
Is the risk real or fanciful?
Careers, 1 Teaching children to take responsibility for their actions is an effective administrative control in play areas
civil negligence law when there is an accident. Here, the fall did not cause the death of the child: the child had been expected to recover – it was the MRSA contracted in hospital that was fatal.
5. IS IT GUIDANCE RATHER THAN LEGISLATION? The guidance for supervising children in school classes indicates that higher supervision levels might be appropriate, although other controls can provide the same reduction in risk. In this case, the training of young children to take responsibility for their actions was part of the ethos of the school and was an effective administrative control that reduced the risk. However, an engineering control (gate) is higher up the hierarchy of risk control and might also be considered.
6. WHAT IS THE ACCIDENT RECORD? The accident record for the school was excellent and better than that of other schools in the area.
trouble and expense of the control. If there was no significant reduction in overall risk, then it may not be reasonably practicable to apply the control.
3. CONSIDER MAINTENANCE The steps were well-maintained with no defects.
4. IS THERE CAUSATION? Causation is a concept also used in
7. IS THERE A GOOD ATTITUDE AND RESPECT TOWARDS THE BUSINESS? There was an unexplained long delay before the principal of the school was interviewed, there was no clear allegation of wrongdoing, and the case took years to come to court. It is always appropriate to be respectful and transparent when dealing with businesses, even when there is non-compliance.
ABOUT THE WRITER Richard Ferrari is an EHO, Food, Safety and Licensing, at Broadland and South Norfolk Councils. He completed his environmental health degree in 1984, but changed direction, working in manufacturing and warehousing in the UK and abroad exploring shared and community living. In 2008 he returned to EH, completing his portfolio as an EHP in 2010. He also undertook a level three NEBOSH (National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health) general certificate and level six NCRQ (National Compliance and Risk Qualifications) diploma in applied health and safety.
ON L I N E EV EN T S CIEH offers a wide range of professional development and networking opportunities. Here is a selection of the upcoming events: CONFERENCES l CIEH 14th Housing and Health
Conference 24 May l CIEH Food Safety Conference 28 June MEMBER FORUMS l Food coffee and catch-up
7 April/26 May l HoardingUK coffee and catch-up 6 May l New to the profession coffee and catch-up 17 May BITESIZE TRAINING l Control of listeria in food
processing 5 April l Vacuum packing 12 April l Supplementary legislation to the Housing Act 2004 22 April l Managing public events for a safer future 22 April WORKSHOPS l Basic electrical awareness
27 April l Fire risk assessment and awareness 27 April l Statutory nuisance law and residential property 28 April l HMO enforcement 28 April l Visit www.cieh.org/events
Exclusive offer for members Two informative books published by CIEH are now on offer to members at a special discounted price
and the BSE crisis, and how they were tackled by EHPs. Price: £19.99 £15.00 (plus £1.80 delivery)
Putting Wrong Things Right: Environmental Health from 1952 to 2012, edited by former EHN editor William Hatchett and published to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, records events such as the Aberfan landslide, outbreaks of smallpox and typhoid
The Stuff of Life: Public Health in Edwardian Britain is a social history that brings to light the largely hidden story of a time when industry killed and maimed thousands and, in Britain’s towns and cities, the poor lived on meagre diets, and often in squalid
WWW.CIEH.ORG
conditions. Into this arena stepped a hard-working public servant – the sanitary inspector, conducting an unglamorous and rarely acknowledged battle against filth and disease. Price: £7.99 £5.00 (plus £1.80 delivery) l To order either title, please fill out the online form at www. cieh.org/contact-us, stating which book you would like
MARCH 2022 / ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH NEWS 23
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Front line Ray Brassington, 1
Front line VERSION
L EAR N I NG P OI N T S GET OUT AND ABOUT Go out and visit sites – it’s the best way to get a real understanding of the issues.
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When assessing a planning application, there’s no substitute for a site visit, believes Ray Brassington PRODUCTION
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‘It opened my eyes to life on council estates’ Ray Brassington spent 35 years working in environmental health and now chairs the planning and licensing committee of Cotswold District Council
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in the environment as a teenager in the 1960s and joined Friends of the Earth. When I went for job interviews, I wouldn’t say that I was a member in case they thought I was too radical, but now it would be considered an advantage. I’m 67 and still a member. I always wanted to work somewhere where I could do something positive to try to improve the environment and the quality of life for people. I trained at Guildford Borough Council, and then moved to Oldham, in Greater Manchester, which was very different – it really opened my eyes to things such as life on council estates. One of the big issues was that the drains in many of the terraced houses were decrepit and would often collapse, causing a lot of problems. Fly-tipping was an issue too and I used to catch people in the act. I’d watch them
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unload and then I’d go up and tell them who I was and that they either load it back into their car or I’d prosecute. I didn’t have a mobile phone to take pictures in those days, but I had the details of the car, and they’d always reload it. I then spent 28 years at Cotswold District Council. It’s a huge area covering 450 square miles, with a big chunk designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, so planning has always been a major issue. I built a strong relationship with the planning department and they would often refer people with planning applications to me at an early stage, so I could give them a heads-up on possible issues. Prevention is better than cure. There’s always been a lack of advice for EHOs about how to assess planning applications, so I produced a guidance
GET TRAINED Keep up-todate with legislation and if training’s offered, do all you can to find the time to do it.
2
KNOW YOUR COLLEAGUES Make sure you don’t just work with your team – get to know other council departments too.
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document, which expanded over the years and quite a few councils in the south-west adopted it. I retired in 2012 and became a councillor in 2017. Austerity had led to big staff cuts and, while I realised people were pressed for time, one change that really surprised me was that they rarely go out to visit sites now. When an EHO got a planning application, they’d use Google Earth to look at the site. I find that very strange because you can’t really determine something from looking at it in a photograph. You’ve got to visit the site to see what’s there and get a feel for it. EHOs need to be able to react to events too – after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, the six district councils in Gloucester set up monitoring sites, which we visited once a month. They generated a lot of data on background radiation levels, which we could use as a base reading if there was another accident. A young lad named Robert Weaver spoke to us at one of the sites – he was interested in what we were doing. We employed him as a student EHO and I helped train him. He is now chief executive of Cotswold District Council! With me chairing the planning and licensing committee, we have two EHOs in senior positions, which is a credit to the profession.
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DO YOU HAVE A TALE TO SHARE? Email editor@cieh.org
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