Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Roger Bennett, Joanne Beecham, Jennifer Wheeler and Pat Witherspoon.  Councillor Joe Baker attended as substitute for Councillor Witherspoon.

To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and / or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests.

There were no declarations of interest.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the Licensing Committee held on 16^th July 2018.

RESOLVED that

the minutes of the meeting of the Licensing Committee held on 16th July 2018 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Members received a report seeking approval for changes that would be required in order to implement the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals)( England) Regulations 2018. Specifically, Members were asked to consider updating the Worcestershire Shared Services Agreement dated 01 April 2016 to reflect the legislative changes, and to set the fees under the new regime for licensing of animal activities.

The Licensing Support Manager, Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) introduced the report and updated members on the introduction of the new regime for licensing of animal act ivies which the members had already been briefed on at the meeting of the Licensing Committee on 16 July.

Members were reminded that under the regulations the existing licensing scheme for animal boarding establishments, pet shops, riding establishments and dog breeders would be repealed and replaced by a new single licensing scheme that would regulate all of these activities and would also incorporate the licensing of those who train or exhibit performing animals which is an area of licensing that had previously been the responsibility of Worcestershire County Council carried out by Trading Standard Officers.

It was noted that the new regulations would come into force on 01 October 2018, and the Licensing Support Manager explained that officers had only received the guidance that supports the regulations issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in mid-August. Members were advised that the guidance documents were very detailed and officers were working hard to review the guidance and set up a work programme to cover the change over to the new regime.  As the new regime would be more rigorous and require a greater number of inspections and more administration work to support it, WRS had decided that an extra officer would need to be employed to cover the additional workload.

The Licensing Support Manager explained that individual guidance had been issued for each licensable activity and there would be three levels of conditions for applicants to comply with; standard conditions, higher conditions and extra higher conditions.  The level of attainment would be linked to a star rating system and to a risk rating.  The level of risk would dictate the number of inspections required each year for any business holding a licence with most businesses receiving at least two inspections a year.  Business owners would be required to display their star rating to the public.

The Licensing Support Manager highlighted the following features of the new regime:-

·         That a licence would be able to authorise more than one activity, for example kennelling and breeding;

·         That the new system would introduce star ratings and that the linekd risk assessment would inform the frequency of inspections and the length of licence granted.

·         That the old terminology of a “pet shop licence” would be replaced with a licence for the “selling of animals” thus incorporating not only traditional shops but also all other forms of selling including internet businesses.

·         That dog breeders would now have to obtain a licence for 3  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

The Committee considered the Licensing Committee Work Programme for the 2018/2019 Municipal Year .

RESOLVED THAT

The Licensing Committee Work Programme 2018/2019 be noted