Leicester City Council
Business Regulatory Support Policy
1. Introduction
This policy document sets out the basis on which Leicester City Council, through its
Regulatory Services, will provide information, advice and support to local businesses
and businesses with operations in Leicester on legislative requirements enforced by
local government.
This policy document also sets out the circumstances when the City Council will
charge for the giving of support to businesses based within and outside Leicester
City.
2. Scope
The following services are covered by this Policy:
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Trading Standards
Health & Safety
Food Safety and Standards
Licensing
Private Sector Housing
Building Control
3. Background
Leicester City Council has a wide range of duties and powers to protect the public
and service users, businesses, the natural and built environment.
The City Mayor and Council’s vision for Leicester is,
“Leicester – A place to do business”
The City Council recognises that the vast majority of businesses want to operate
fairly and legally and recognise that it is their interest and their customers’ interest to
do so.
It is the Council’s intention to assist such businesses to comply with legislative
requirements without imposing unnecessary burdens on business. The Council
acknowledges the role played by all the local regulators in helping people to start up,
run and expand their businesses.
4. Getting Information from Leicester City Council
The Council recognises that, once pointed in the right direction, the majority of
businesses are able to apply for required permissions, and understand and apply the
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law to their own circumstances without the need for involving third parties such as
legal advisers and consultants.
If a business approaches a Leicester City Council Regulatory Service with a request
for support then officers will diagnose the matter with the business and will provide or
point the business in the direction of information that it can use to decide what to do.
Explanation will be provided where the business has difficulties understanding the
information.
Officers monitor the quality of information sources and will only refer a business to
information which they are confident can be easily used by the business to help
itself.
All information produced by the City Council will be made available for downloading
from the City Council’s website and officers will ensure that the website is easy to
understand and use.
These signposting and information services will be supplied free of charge to
businesses.
It is Council policy to redirect a business to the appropriate regulatory service for
information and advice if their Head Office is not in Leicester City and no significant
operations of that business take place within the city. The only exception to this is
where the City Council have entered into a Primary Authority Partnership with a
business based outside Leicester City.
Where a regulatory service undertakes an inspection and non-compliance is
discovered, it is the policy of the Council that, where there is a good history of
compliance and no dishonesty or negligence is involved, the business will be given
the opportunity to make corrections, will be signposted or provided with information
and basic advice. If an enforcement intervention is required then this will be taken in
accordance with the Council’s Enforcement policy.
5. Getting Support from Leicester City Council
There are circumstances where a business will need other help to provide them with
assurance that they are operating in compliance with regulations. This may be
because an issue:
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Entails a high commercial risk for the business
The business circumstances are unusual
The legislative requirements are novel or complex
In these circumstances Leicester City Council can offer a range of services to the
business or its agents.
The Services available are:
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Written advice on regulatory issues
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Training
Review of policies, procedures and systems against regulations/standards
Audit of business compliance against own standards or regulations
Reviews and analysis of complaint/enquiry data to assist business
planning.
Where the support request is such that a business is faced with a number of options
and/or alternative routes of achieving compliance, officers will base any
recommendation on what is the best option to maintain public protection.
This support service will be chargeable.
6. Forming a Primary Authority Partnership with Leicester City Council
A business with operations in Leicester City may be eligible to conclude a Primary
Authority Partnership agreement with the Council.
A Primary Authority Partnership agreement is a statutory arrangement established
under the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008. The purpose of a
Partnership arrangement is help a business to more effectively manage its
interactions with local authority regulators around the country and provide protection
from inappropriate enforcement action.
Services provided under a Primary Authority Partnership agreement are chargeable
and the charges will be set out in the agreement. Charging will be on a cost
recovery basis.
The conclusion of a Primary Authority Partnership requires the approval of the
Business Regulation Delivery Office (BRSO).
Primary Authority Support for Businesses
Leicester City Council can act as a Primary Authority in one or more of the following
categories:
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Health & Safety
Food Safety
Food Standards
Age Restricted Sales
Consumer Credit
Environmental Protection
Explosives Licensing
Fair Trading
Metrology (Weights & Measures)
Petroleum Licensing
Product Safety
Road Traffic
Licencing
As part of any Primary Authority Partnership, the Council will offer the following
services as
standard:
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On-going strategic support for the business on regulatory developments.
This includes providing comprehensive advice and guidance from
professionally qualified officers with regular meetings with the partner
business.
Liaison with other enforcement agencies. This comprises coordination of
enquiries from other Local Authorities/Regulators and communicating with
them.
In addition, the Council can provide additional optional services at the request of the
business, including:
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Training
Review of policies, procedures and systems
Audit of business systems
Audit of business compliance
Reviews and analysis of complaint/enquiry data to assist business
planning.
Terms and Conditions for Primary Authority Partnership
The Primary Authority Partnership agreement will generally be based on the
standard terms and conditions developed by Business Regulation Delivery Office.
All businesses in a Primary Authority Partnership with Leicester City Council will be
charged fees to recover the costs incurred in acting as the Primary Authority.
An initial set up fee will be charged to businesses that are new to the scheme.
The fees charged and the scope of the partnership will be reviewed at regular
intervals during the lifetime of the partnership and in any case no longer than every
12 months. The frequency of these reviews will be with the agreement of the
business.
The City Council reserve the right to reduce or waive fees for a partnership where it
is considered that this would be in the best interests of Leicester City Council.
7. Statutory Provisions
The Council provides a wide range of services to the public, visitors and local
businesses for which charges are levied. A number of these are statutory services
but a considerable proportion is discretionary. The practice for charging for
discretionary services is well established and the Local Government Act 2003
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provides an additional g7eneral power for local authorities to charge for discretionary
services which are not covered by any other legislation.
8. Approval of fees and charges
The Director of Local Services and Enforcement is responsible for the setting of fees
and charges and for ensuring that the rates at which charges are set achieve full
cost recovery.
Concessions in respect of charges may be applied as considered appropriate.
See Appendix Two.
9. Recovery of fees and charges
Where customers fail to pay for fees and charges, they shall be liable for the
additional costs of enforcement.
Date Effective: 1 May 2014
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Appendix One
Leicester City Council
Business Regulatory Support
Terms and Conditions
1.
Business regulatory support is managed and delivered by the Local Services and
Enforcement Division, which is part of Leicester City Council.
2.
Advice and support is available to businesses from officers within the Division. This
support is provided on a chargeable basis.
3.
Leicester City Council undertakes to ensure that only adequately trained officers
provide advice, that the advice will be impartial and that all reasonable steps will be
taken to ensure that it is correct at the time at which it is given.
4.
In seeking to obtain regulatory business advice from Leicester City Council, you (the
customer) undertake to provide details of your business, including trading name/s,
legal name, postal addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses and the nature of
the business, as well as contact details for the person requesting the advice. Advice
cannot be given until this information has been received.
5.
Upon receipt of your request for advice, we will allocate it to an officer who will
become your point of contact for your enquiry. The officer will inform you of the
charges to expect. The officer will endeavour to provide a complete response to
your enquiry within five working days of you agreeing to the charges. Where the
enquiry is complex we will advise you of the expected timescale for providing the
requested advice.
6.
Work on requests for support will be charged in units of one hour (currently £55 plus
VAT, £66 including VAT per hour), and quarter hours thereof. The minimum charge
will be one hour.
7.
All advice given to the business will be sent by electronic mail, or if preferred by
post.
8.
Once the advice is given, you will be sent an invoice and payment is due within 28
days. Our preferred payment method is an online payment to Leicester City Council
on http://e-forms.leicester.gov.uk/default.aspx/RenderForm/?F.Name=T7w6Yjeux5g
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9.
Subject to the overriding provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, all
information provided by customers as part of this scheme will be treated sensitively
and kept securely.
10.
Leicester City Council is empowered to enforce a variety of civil and criminal statutes
relating to the protection of the public and the environment in the City. We have a
duty to investigate any allegations of breaches of such legislation and the provision
of advice under this scheme does not affect this duty in any way.
11.
Where advice is provided under a Primary Authority Partnership then it may have
binding influence on other local authority regulators nationally. Your named contact
officer will be able to fully explain what this means for your business if it is applicable
to you.
12.
Use of this service does not entitle your business to use any logo or claim any
affiliation with Leicester City Council.
13.
If you are not satisfied with the quality or timeliness of the information and advice
provided to you, we ask that you please contact us at the earliest opportunity so the
officer or his/her Team Manager can attempt to resolve the issue. If this is not
possible or desirable then you will have recourse to Leicester City Council’s official
complaints procedure. Details of which can be found at
http://www.leicester.gov.uk/contact-us/comments-compliments-and-complaints
14.
If you do not have access to the internet please do not hesitate to contact us on
0116 454 3200 or write to us at: Leicester City Council, Business Support Team, New
Walk Centre, Leicester, LE1 6ZG requesting details of our official complaints
procedure.
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Appendix Two
Leicester City Council Charging Framework
Non-trading Charities
(supported with
donations and public
monies)
Individuals
considering trading or
preparing to start
trading
(Pre-start ups)
FREE
FREE
FIRST 2 HOURS
FREE AND THEN
CHARGEABLE AT
HOURLY RATE (COST
RECOVERY)
FIRST 2 HOURS
FREE AND THEN
CHARGEABLE AT
HOURLY RATE (COST
RECOVERY)
CHARGEABLE
CHARGEABLE
Trading Entities
Micros
Small
Large
Basic Compliance Help
[on duty line]
(Essential Regulatory
Information and
Signposting)
Compliance Advice &
Support
(Advanced bespoke
compliance information,
advice and support)
FREE
CHARGEABLE AT HOURLY
RATE
(COST RECOVERY)
FREE
FREE
CHARGEABLE AT HOURLY
RATE
(COST RECOVERY)
CHARGEABLE AT
HOURLY RATE
(COST RECOVERY)
CHARGEABLE
CHARGEABLE
Training
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CHARGEABLE