Background
Prosperity and protection
Who checks whether the air is clean, food is fit to eat, workplaces are safe and companies trade fairly? The answer is essentially councils, through their regulatory services. The scope of what is provided varies across the UK, since resources are allocated and initiatives are launched on the basis of community priorities. However, the underlying aim is to contribute locally to economic prosperity or consumer protection.
In relation to its mission to improve the regulation of business at a local level, LBRO focuses on four services: environmental health, fire safety, licensing and trading standards. These all work with local companies through advice, support and enforcement, applying their professional expertise to key issues.
Chartered Institute of Environmental Health - www.cieh.org.uk
Chief Fire Officers' Association - www.cfoa.org.uk
Institute of Licensing - www.instituteoflicensing.org
Trading Standards Institute - www.tradingstandards.gov.uk
In what context do regulatory services operate? Although the full picture is complex, the answer is basically with reference to Local Area Agreements (LAAs). Council strategies for developing the communities they serve are delivered through LAAs. These are formal partnerships with local organizations - such as health bodies and police forces - which work together to achieve the outcome-focused targets in the 198 National Indicators. These in turn reflect priorities at a national level and are used by the Government to monitor the performance of councils. They extend to major issues like tackling anti-social behaviour, social exclusion and climate change. Up to 35 are included in each LAA, depending on local circumstances, and regulatory services play an important role in meeting some of those most often selected. LAAs typically have guiding themes, such as safer and healthier communities, economic development and environmental protection.
CLG - www.communities.gov.uk
Finally, our remit, approach, work and structure are covered in our general leaflet below.
Better Local Regulation (21/10/2008 Adobe PDF - 600 KB / 8 pages)
