Transcript

Good morning everybody, it's me again. Thank you for joining this regulatory public committee. I need to advise you that today's meeting is a public meeting and will be broadcast live via the Council's website. First I'm going to ask Donna, our committee clerk, to check that all attendees are present. Over to you Donna. Thank you chair. So do we have Councillor Butte? Present. Councillor Wildman? Present. Councillor Brackenridge? Present. Councillor Francis? Present. Councillor cocaine? Present. Councillor Caw? Present. Councillor Tosaim Singh? Present. Councillor Crofts? Present. And Councillor Maddox? Present. Thank you. Thank you. May I remind everyone to keep the microphones on mute unless you've been invited to speak by the chair. If you wish to speak please press the right hand button on the microphone once before you speak and once again at the conclusion of your address. If you're referring to specific documents please clearly state the document and page number. Now back to the agenda. Donna do we have any apologies for absence? Yes chair. Apologies have been received from Councillors Ashamatou and Harbinder Singh. Thank you chair. Thank you Donna. Are there any declarations of interest on the items that we're going to hear now? Nope. Thank you. Minutes from the previous meeting. These can be found on page one to four of your agenda pack. Does anyone wish to propose that these are inaccurate and can I have a seconder? I propose they're accurate record chair. Can we have a seconder? I'll second chair. Thank you Bob. Sorry Tarsim he got in first. From the minutes are there any matters arising? Jane again? Sorry. From the matters arising there's a matter arising which is the committee member queried the level of public liability insurance required for the providers of non-surgical aesthetic treatments. It was agreed that that would be passed on to Environmental Health. Have we had a response from that please? Any of the officers can take that one on at all? I can look into that and come back through you chair. Councillor Brackenbridge. Could you suggest us an email to the members of the committee chair? It would make it a lot easier for people. Thank you. Yeah so if we could have just an update on that because I think I've got somewhere in my notes after the presentation similar sort of lines because we're aware there's some new legislation trying to come in as well. So I know a previous member was quite proactive on that to be fair. Thank you. We are now on agenda item five health and safety statutory plan 2024 to 2025. These can be found on page five of your agenda pack. Charlotte Rose team leader from Environmental Health will present the report. After Charlotte has presented the report we'll take any questions. So over to you Charlotte. Good morning and thank you through you chair. I'm Charlotte Rose I'm a team leader. I work for Emma Caddick. I lead the team that deliver the responsibilities for health and safety throughout the city. I'm here today to present to you from page five onwards the health and safety statutory service plan for 2024 to 2025. You'll see the statutory plan from its appendix one. Now to provide you with a little bit of background. The council is responsible for protecting the health safety and welfare people at work in our city and to safeguard others. The responsibility is shared with the health and safety executive and the care quality commission. We have local priorities and targeted interventions which are set by the health and safety executive through the local authority circular 67 to. We have a province proactive inspection. Apologies proactive inspection was reduced to only high highest risk businesses and reactive inspection are following reports of any near misses accident reports that we receive and also complaints and intelligence that we receive for example through members of the public. Now the health and safety statutory service plan is a requirement under the national local authority enforcement code for health and safety at work. The code is mandatory under section 18 of the health and safety at work act 1974. This document is public, it's produced annually and it details allocated resources, priority areas activity, a reduced number of proactive inspections and our key achievements. Now some of our key achievements for 2023 to 2024 include some of our non-surgical cosmetic procedure awareness that you are aware of such as the butter documentation injections that we investigated over the last few years that hit the media. We were the first local authority to take action in England and we also continue to liaise with the Department of Health and Social Care on the licensing of non-surgical cosmetic procedures. We've provided advice to prevent and support good mental health in the workplace and we also provided safety advice ahead of the coronation of King Charles the third and that was around safe use of inflatables and electrical outdoor safety. We also carried out some proactive workplace transport inspections and also visited our two indoor firing range inspections and the photograph here is of Aldersley shooting range. Now for the year ahead for 2024 to 2025 we've decided to focus our national priorities on the duty to manage asbestos. The HSE have issued statistics which have confirmed that there are still around 5000 asbestos related disease deaths per year. We'll be focusing our efforts on working with duty holders in terms of their management responsibilities. We'll be looking at gas and electrical safety in commercial catering premises and we'll also be looking at Legionella the management of cooling towers. We'll also focus our efforts on planned preventative maintenance for workplace equipment and this will be carried out through visits proactively undertaken in industrial retail and wholesale sites and also warehouses. We'll continue to do some work around workplace transport and also we're going to be considering violence at work, such as in small retailers, betting shops, licensed premises that's recently been in the media around the violence that the workers are subjected to. Now financial and legal implications the authorities required to make adequate arrangements for the enforcement of health and safety in the city. This resource provision is delivered through the resident services portfolio and the approved budget comes from the environmental health budget. The health and safety enforcement is a function which must not be the responsibility of an authorities executive and the functions under the relevant status provisions fall to the licensing committee to approve. Through you chair, any questions? Thank you, Councillor Francis. Thank you. On page 7.2.7H says that there were 70 accident investigation reports. Where were they received from? How many needed action? Was there a pattern? Would it be possible to include them in an appendix redacted? Possibly. And then are those people contacted once they've made an accident report as to the outcome? Thank you. Through you chair, we received them through our RIDOR, so it's through the health and safety executive portal. They are based, the investigations are risk based. We are set under the RIDOR regulations ones accidents and incidents that require further investigation. So it basically specifies you would carry out an investigation for this or gather further intelligence and information. And in some scenarios we do engage with members of the public who have unfortunately been subject to being off work because of an accident, suffered from an injury. And we also engage with the businesses who are associated with the RIDOR report to let them know whether we would be carrying out further investigation or that we've received a report and will be taking no further action, etc. I might have to come through you Emma in terms of whether we can include them within redacted within the next year's report. Through you chair, yeah we should be able to as long as there's no personal information. We don't have the figures to hand but we can certainly circulate them after the meeting if that's ok. They are triaged, all of them are triaged by the service, they are reviewed and then we determine which ones we should investigate and which ones will be used for intelligence. And we do look at patents so if a specific patent is coming up then we will look at that either in this year, the financial year or the next year it might become a priority area of work for us. Councillor Francis you want to come back? An additional question then on page 217.2 you state about a risk based approach, is there a grid or matrix to have a look at it, could that also be included as an appendix? Apologies what was that same number, what was the page number sorry? Page 217.2 Could you just repeat the question please? It states that it's a risk based approach, is there a matrix, a grid to say well the seriousness of things and therefore what action is taken and could that be included in an appendix? The enforcement management model, we could make reference to the enforcement management model. Thank you, are there any other questions? I've just got one on the near misses, I did my diploma in this so it's straight away in the back of my head, do we have a number of just the near misses as well and is that being updated and are people actually reporting the near misses because I know within the council scope it's quite a big thing but out in the ether it may not be so I'm just curious as to do we have any stats on near misses and again like Jane says could they be included? If they're not up there because I know it's happening maybe we can do like a push on that you know the near misses do need to be reported because that's an accident of the future, just a curiosity of my own I don't know if we can do that or not Emma? I'm not quite sure if they're recorded near misses, we have investigated some near misses and you are right they're really under reported compared to normal accidents so we could do some work on near misses and I'm not sure if we'll have the capacity this year but we could certainly include it in following years because you're right near misses normally indicate whether there's going to you know the potential for a future accident so businesses should be reporting it. But I'm not quite sure with you know how well they are reporting that. Just something that if we could do a piece of work on that just to make businesses aware and maybe something on Wolverhampton today you know that you have got the right to report near misses you know because I know some companies don't like it you know but at the end of the day it's preventing harm to someone you know and as you say that future accident for me it's. Well it usually indicates that something's gone wrong somewhere so that would you know potential for a further accident. If we could add that noted and you know any information disseminated between the committee members as well so we're all abreast of it that'd be brilliant. No thank you. Regular committees recommended to approve the proposal for the health and safety statutory plan 2024-2025 do I have a proposer and a seconder? Seconded. Thank you both that is carried. We're now to agenda item six sports ground safety audit this can be found on page 33 of your agenda pack. Alison Stevens senior officer for food health and safety will present the report. Over to you Alison. Thank you chair. Good morning I'm Alison Stevens senior officer with environmental health and I'm the lead officer responsible for sports ground safety within the authority. The report I'm bringing today is regarding the audit that was carried out by the sports ground safety authority and the purpose sorry the purpose of the report is to update on the outcome of that external audit took place in December last year. So the local authority is responsible for administering two pieces of legislation. The sports ground safety act 1975 and the fire safety and safety places of sport acts 1987. This legislation was bought in by the government following a number of disasters that occurred at football grounds and on the slide you'll see a number of those disasters. Possibly the most the one most people obviously have a clear memory of is that the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 where 97 people lost their lives and 766 people were injured. So this legislation sets out regulatory control for sports grounds, and it depends on the capacity of the ground and the activity that takes place. The Secretary of State designates certain grounds that have a capacity of over, over 10,000 or 5000 in the case of football, and they're known as designated grounds. Wolverhampton has one designated ground, which you can see out the window, and that's Molyneux Stadium, and they have a capacity of 31,818. Sports ground stages that don't meet the criteria of being a designated ground, but contain covered stands that have a capacity of 500 spectators, whether seated or standing are classed as regulated stands, and it's up to the local authority to determine whether we have any in the borough. Wolverhampton has two regulated stands, Monmouth Green, which has greyhound racing, their capacity is just over 1300, and Wolverhampton Racecourse, which does horse racing, and their capacity is just over four and a half thousand. So both designated stadiums and regulated stands require a safety certificate. And when considering whether to issue a safety certificate, we have to give consideration to whether the applicant is an appropriate person. Once issued, the local authority must then ensure compliance with the safety certificate, and we do this during performance inspections and an annual inspection, where we're often accompanied by building control, the police and fire. And so environmental health within commercial regulation are responsible for discharging the local authorities duties and issuing the safety certificates, ensuring compliance by inspections. So just in more detail, a safety certificate sets out the permitted capacity for the sports ground, and it sets conditions of operation. So for example, it may require production of an operations manual, completion of fire risk assessments, contingency plans, stewarding plans, so numbers, what level of training they must have, the level of maintenance of plant and equipment. And as shown on the slide, there has to be a safety officer in place, otherwise the ground capacity is zero, and the certificate should be reviewed annually. So how do we ensure compliance with the safety certificate? It's done in a number of ways. The during performance inspections, the annual inspection, and safety advisory group meetings. We have three safety advisory group meetings a season. And all those methods are basically carried out on a risk basis and in line with home office guidance. So as regards Wolverhampton Wanderers, I currently complete four inspections per season. The matches attended are chosen on a risk basis, considering factors such as the time of the match. So whether it's evening, daytime, weekend, weekday, the police risk rating that is all done at the start of the season. Any likely disorder, so any intelligence regarding that, and the importance of the match, so is NFA cup, are we, you know, is if we win or lose, is there a significant matter there that would have an effect on the crowd potentially. So in terms of a during performance inspection, which is what I do sort of four times a season, what I actually do is I'll go and I'll attend the safety managers briefing to the stand managers. So it's delivered by the safety officer. Those briefings are then put out to the other stewards for each stand. And so having sat in the main briefing, I then go and I'll pick a stand and I'll sit and see that stand manager deliver his briefing to the stewards. And I'm looking to see that they've understood the information and there's continuity of that information being passed on to the stewards. I'll watch them do their stadium checks. I'll do my own checks of the stands, make sure that all exit routes are clear, there's no fire hazards. I'll look at, I'll go outside the ground and I'll observe the spectators arriving, watch them queue, see how they enter through the turnstiles. And then I'll move inside and I'll look at behaviours inside and particularly focusing on persistent standing and look at how the stewards address any problem areas. I'll visit the control room and watch how the control room operates. And then at the end of the match, I'll watch egress to ensure that the ground clears in a suitable time. So that was a very quick overview of the local authority role. But it is ultimately what this Sports Ground Safety authority audit was looking at. The Sports Ground Safety authority is part of the Department of Culture, Media and Sports and their main duties are to license Premier League, English Football League and International Football grounds. And also to oversee local authorities in their role for safety certification. The Sports Ground Safety Authority produced guidance to help us and to help sports grounds and the most notable one being the Green Guide, as it's known, which details a significant amount of information about safety management. It goes into real sort of technicalities about flow rates for spectators, the heights, widths, depths of steeps, licensed standing requirements. It's very, very detailed. And so the audit was carried out on the 19th of December last year, 2023, and it was done by the Sports Ground Safety Inspector, Martin Givhan, with myself. You should have a full copy of the audit with your papers. The audit was desk based and it was done over Teams and the Inspector considers the nine areas as they're detailed on the slide. And so they're looking at things. Have we complied with actions from previous audits? Do we have the ability to calculate safe capacities? How well is the sag attended and run? Do we have procedures about issuing safety certification and do we follow them? How do we monitor compliance? So look in particular how we choose the visits that we attend or rather the matches we attend and what action that we take. Whether we've got an enforcement policy and if we have to take enforcement action, how we would take that. The training and expertise of the staff involved. What business continuity and resilience arrangements we have and overall the confidence that the SJSA has that we will discharge our duties that are placed on as a local authority. And the inspector scores the local authority for each aspect. And I'm pleased to say that we scored 100 percent, which was a great result and acknowledgement of the work put in and commitment by the local authority to see this as a really important area of work. And I'd just like to end on this particular slide, really, with a quote from Lord Justice Taylor, who held the inquiry into the Hillsborough Stadium disaster. And he said complacency is the enemy of safety. And this remains as true today as it was 35 years ago. And it should remain at the heart of this important role that we have. Thank you, Alison. Anyone got any questions for Alison? You've answered mine. I'm a Wolves fan for my sins, so we know which matches a high tension and high profile, but you've answered that within there. You know, I also used to be a student over there and at Birmingham, so I understand exactly where you're coming from, and it's really good to see that the measures are in there because we just don't want another incident like Hillsborough. You know, it's just not worth thinking about, you know, you go to a football match and you want to come home. It should not be, you know, safety is paramount for me, and I just think it's wonderful that we've got 100 percent. And for me, I think that's a credit to the team, if you can take that back to the team, you know, it's good work and it's safety. And for me, and I know the rest of the committee, you know, we take that really seriously and we're glad that, you know, our patrons are looked after. So if there's no more questions, the regular committee is now asked to know the content of the Sports Grand Safety Audit Report, following the audit of the Authority Sports Grand Safety Function, which took place on the 19th of December 2023. Do I have a proposer and a seconder? Proposed, Chair. Do we have a seconder? I'll second. Thank you, Councillor. All those in favour, say aye. Aye. All those against, thank you. That is carried. This brings an end to the meeting and thank you everybody for the participation. I'd just like to, and under any other business, just say I'd like to thank our outgoing Vice Chair for all your work over the last year. Much appreciated and the subcommittees that we've done, which are quite a lot. And welcome our new subcommittee Vice Chair, Alan Butt. I just thought I'd introduce everyone but give thanks for the outgoing Vice Chair as well because I think that's right and proper. And that's the end of the meeting. Thank you everyone for your participation and look forward to seeing you at the next one.