Housing, Dundee Contract Services And Environment Services Committee - 11/01/2010

At a MEETING of the HOUSING, DUNDEE CONTRACT SERVICES AND ENVIRONMENT SERVICES COMMITTEE held at Dundee on 11th January, 2010.

Present:-

BAILIES

COUNCILLORS

Councillor Jimmy BLACK, Convener, in the Chair.

The minute of meeting of this Committee of 7th December, 2009 was held as read.

Unless marked thus * all items stand delegated.

I REVIEW OF RENT

There was submitted Agenda Note AN237-2009 reporting that this item had been placed on the agenda at the request of Councillor Keenan who sought that the Council agree to put forward a four year Rent Plan Projection from 2011 and this to include projected inflation rates.

The Committee approved the plan which would be used as a basis for information of Tenants' Groups around future rent increases and would include the potential factors which would impact on the projected rents.

II FSA FOOD HYGIENE INFORMATION SCHEME (SCORES ON THE DOORS)

There was submitted Report No 12-2010 by the Head of Environmental Health and Trading Standards advising the Committee of the outcome of the consultation of the Food Standards Agency's proposals for a National Food Hygiene Information Scheme (Scores on the Doors) and the strategy to introduce the scheme in Dundee.

The Committee agreed to:-

(i) support the introduction of a Food Hygiene Information Scheme into Dundee using the Scottish model; and

(ii) approve the proposal for the introduction of the scheme as detailed in Appendix 1 of the report.

III IMPLEMENTATION OF PART 8 OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH ETC (SCOTLAND) ACT 2008 AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH ETC (SCOTLAND) ACT2008 (SUNBED) REGULATIONS 2009

There was submitted Agenda Note AN3-2010 reporting that new sunbed laws that regulate their use, sale and hire came into effect on 1st December, 2009. From that date, it became illegal for sunbed operators to allow unsupervised use of sunbeds, to allow persons under 18 to use a sunbed and to sell or hire sunbeds to persons under 18.

Operators must also display a Health Notice in their premises and provide customers with information about the health effects of sunbed use. Authorised officers in EHTS had been checking that sunbed operators were displaying notices which provide information to patrons, and were taking reasonable steps to check a person's age and prohibiting the use of sunbeds by persons under 18.

The Act provides for seven offences in relation to the operation of sunbed premises and one offence in relation to the sale or hire of sunbeds.

In relation to the operation of sunbed premises the offences are:-

- allowing a person under 18 to use a sunbed;

- allowing a person to use a sunbed without supervision;

- failure to provide prescribed information to sunbed users;

- intentionally obstructing an officer in entering and inspecting premises (or dwellinghouses, if appropriate and relevant);

- failure to comply with a requirement for the production of records and information;

- failure to provide the name and address of the operator of the premises.

In relation to the sale or hire of sunbeds the offence is:-

- selling or hiring a sunbed to a person who is under 18.

Enforcement Officers may issue a Fixed Penalty Notice if they have reason to believe that a person was committing or had committed an offence. The current amounts which would be applied for each of the offences varies from 50 - 100.

Should a person who had received a fixed penalty notice fail to pay the fixed penalty notice by the end of the 28 day period, then the person would be reported to the Procurator Fiscal. There was no provision in the Act for the local authority to enforce the unpaid fixed penalty by means of Sheriff Officers.

The Committee noted the above.

Jimmy BLACK, Convener.