Agenda and minutes

In the absence of the Chair, Councillor F Abbott, the meeting was chaired by the Deputy Chair, Councillor K Maton.

There were no declarations of interest.

To agree the minutes of the Committee meeting held on 19^th of November 2024, the Sub-Committee (1) and Sub-Committee (2) (Hackney Carriage & Private Hire Taxi Licensing) meetings held on 17^th December 2024 and 28^th of January 2025, and the Sub-Committee hearing held on 20^th January 2025.

The Minutes of the Committee meeting held on 19th November 2024, the Sub-Committee (1) and Sub-Committee (2) (Hackney Carriage & Private Hire Taxi Licensing) meetings held on 17th December 2024 and 28th January 2025, and the Sub-Committee hearing held on 29th January 2025 were agreed and signed as  true records.

There were no matters arising.

Report of the Director of Law and Governance

The Committee considered a report from the Director of Law and Governance which sought approval to adopt the updated Regulation, Communities and Environmental Enforcement Policy.

The Regulators Code (‘the Code’) was laid before Parliament in accordance with section 23 of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006 (‘the Act’). Regulators whose functions are specified under the Act, must have regard to the Code when developing policies and operational procedures that guide their regulatory activity.

The proposed Policy is an overarching document written to set out the Regulation, Communities and Environmental teams’ general approach to good enforcement. Several teams within the wider service area have specific team Enforcement Policies which sit underneath this one and should be referred to in addition to the overarching Policy. Where a team specific Enforcement Policy is not in place, the overarching Policy is sufficient to meet the requirements of the Code.

The current Enforcement Policy is published on the Council’s web site. however, it needed to be reviewed, and this has now been undertaken.

The report indicated that there were no major changes to the Policy aside from minor expansion of service areas now covered by enforcement. The general principles of the Regulation, Communities and Environmental Team remained the same and the document was still centred around the key regulator principles, namely:

a)  Regulators should carry out their activities in a way that supports those they regulate to comply and grow.

b)  Regulators should provide simple and straightforward ways to engage with those they regulate and hear their views.

c)  Regulators should base their regulatory activity on risk.

d)  Regulators should share information about compliance and risk.

e)  Regulators should ensure clear information, guidance and advice is available to help those they regulate meet their responsibilities to comply.

f)  Regulators should ensure that their approach to regulatory activities is transparent.

Following public consultation, the revised draft of Regulation, Communities and Environmental Enforcement Policy was recommended for adoption and would be considered by the Cabinet Member for Policing and Equalities on 27 February, 2025.

RESOLVED that, the Committee:

1)  Notes the revised Regulation, Communities and Environmental Enforcement Policy.

·  Requests that officers provide regular reports on activity undertaken regarding enforcement action taken in relation to the Environmental Enforcement Policy.

There are no outstanding issues.

There were no outstanding issues.

There were no other items of public business.