CIEH EHN July-August 2020 by Think Publishing

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COPING WITH COVID IN AUSTRALIA

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John Innes john.innes@thinkpublishing.co.uk Think Publishing Ltd Capital House 8th Floor 25 Chapel Street London NW1 5DH 020 3771 7200 EHN is published 10 times per year and printed on paper made from pulp sourced from sustainable materials. The views expressed in the magazine do not necessarily reflect those of CIEH. All information is correct at the time of going to press. Articles published in the magazine may be reproduced only with the permission of CIEH and with acknowledgement to EHN. CIEH does not accept responsibility for the accuracy of statements made by contributors or advertisers. The contents of this magazine are the copyright of CIEH. Ideas and letters to the editor are welcome. EHN is mailed in a wrapper made from potato starch and is fully compostable. You can even use it in your kitchen caddy.

ADAM LENT: THE CHAOS OF CENTRAL CONTROL

SINKING OF THE TITANIC

05 UP D A T E

News Waitrose pledges to safeguard food standards; the physical distancing debate; BMJ slams UK’s “abysmal” pandemic response; CCC urges green recovery; Arctic heatwave concerns; EHPs key to Queensland’s coronavirus success.

EVER Y ISSU E 32 TALES FROM THE FRONT LINE EHP Steffan Micah explains his work in forcing landlords to remove combustible cladding.

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Find your next job at www.ehn-jobs.com, and see how to further your career at www.cieh.org

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FEATU R E S 12 THE BIG INTERVIEW Adam Lent on why central government would do well to recognise the expertise of local authorities. 14 BACK IN BUSINESS The EHPs helping the retail and restaurant industries take safe steps out of lockdown.

19 L EG A L BR IEF ING Opinion The perils of using the wrong legislation. Prosecutions “Shocking scene” at top hotel.

2 2 Y OU R C A R EER Tips on … Supporting the team in the pandemic. Events CIEH’s plans for future face-to-face events.

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Public health officials remain concerned at the relaxation of the 2m rule in England

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the contact tracing model has been branded in England, was always going to be key to finding our way out of this emergency. A debate will rage in time over whether tracing should have stopped in the UK in March (and later restarted) but it was evident to us at CIEH from the start that EHPs were a highly skilled profession to assist in this area. We argued this case, compiled a national volunteer register, made that available to governments in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and connected public health agencies with local government networks in each jurisdiction. (We may look to add to that list given the emerging need for additional capacity in local authorities, so watch this space.) However,we were not directly involved in the design of the models, nor in the recruitment process, which in England

ADAM LENT “The pandemic has highlighted how that centralised set of powers and that ‘we know best’ culture has caused … a very chaotic response”

STEFFAN MICAH “The remediation of combustible cladding takes 12-18 months, but in the team’s second year, we expect to see more blocks made safer

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especially has been fraught with problems. Whether that’s because Whitehall is relying too heavily on the private sector or its tight centralised approach to many aspects of government, again particularly in England – I’m not sure yet. I am reassured that colleagues who know what they are doing are now involved in the planning and design of contact tracing, especially at local level. I am also sure that we will get there. But I remain concerned about relaxations such as ditching the 2m distancing rule, particularly in the absence of a comprehensive, functioning tracing and testing model across England. We’ve explored some of these issues in this edition of EHN. Let us know your thoughts at editor@cieh.org

GARY MCFARLANE Director for Northern Ireland JULY/AUGUST 2020 / ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH NEWS3

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NEWS YOU CAN USE JULY/AUGUST 2020 Follow us on Twitter

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“We promise we will never sell any Waitrose product that does not meet our own high standards … regardless of any trade deal,” says executive director

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Waitrose pledges to back UK farmers Supermarkets respond to plea to safeguard food standards after Brexit

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first supermarket to back UK farmers and food, animal welfare and environmental standards as concerns grow that the UK may water down standards to do trade deals once the Brexit transition period ends. James Bailey, the supermarket’s new executivedirector, wrote to customers: “We promise we will never sell any Waitrose product that does not meet our own high standards. This promise is regardless of the outcome of any trade deal.” His statement came after Compassion in World Farming, supported by CIEH, Sustain, National Farmers Union (NFU), Friends of the Earth and others, wrote to the big nine retailers asking them to back UK standards. WWW.CIEH.ORG

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The Guardian reported that Tesco has ruled out selling chlorinated chicken from the US. Sainsbury’s said in a letter that it “aims to go beyond just legal compliance in these areas”. Morrisons and Aldi also made statements about standards. Meanwhile, an NFU petition to ensure all food imported into the UK conforms to the same high standards as that produced by British farmers has reached a million signatures. And the campaign group Save British Farming is calling on farmers to drive tractors to Parliament Square on 8 July to protest against an Environment Bill that “will ditch UK animal welfare and environmental standards for farm imports [and] flood the market with cheap, low-quality food”.

‘Redesign food system ’ for resilience’

S DEBATE RAGED

around the possible weakening of UK food, animal welfare, and environmental standards to do trade deals, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation ran a series of talks and workshops last month exploring our dysfunctional relationship with food. The Foundation, which promotes a circular economy aimed at designing out waste and pollution, argued that we need to redesign our food system for resilience, connecting with regionalism and circularity. Every year, the UK alone throws away around 9.5 million tonnes of food – 70% of which could have been JULY/AUGUST 2020 / ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH NEWS5

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eaten, and contributes 25 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Carolyn Steel, architect and author of Hungry City: How food shapes our lives, and Sitopia: How food can save the world, speaking at the event, argued that our attitude towards food reveals a fundamental moral and economic problem. “By treating food as cheap, which doesn’t exist, we’ve actually lost the connection in our entire economic system and our total value system, she says. But even “more critically” she argues is that we’ve lost our relationship with “what really matters”– the planet. Environmentalists have long argued that cheap food isn’t actually cheap because of the associated cost to our environment and public health.

Read a full report of this event at www.cieh.org/ ehn-extra

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2m v 1m: how social distancing became a political debate Research shows need for more balanced reporting and combination of interventions

POLITICAL HOT

potato has been made of physical distancing – including the move to ‘1m-plus’ – when really what we need is a transparent public discussion, health and safety experts say. A few days before the prime minister Boris Johnson announced a relaxation of some restrictions, the author of a report on social distancing rules from the University of Stirling said reducing the 2m rule needed to be based on sound evidence that can demonstrate – “not simply suggest” – control measures will be effective. Professor Andrew Watterson said: “The media have been bombarded by voices calling for an end to the 2m restriction. Far less has been made of the damage that may be done to public health and the economy by reducing the 2m guidance

and the possibility of new a silver bullet, the app for spikes and even pandemic example. It calculates what the wavesoccurring. In this respect impact and reproduction would the debate has been quite be if that intervention were unbalanced and ‘fact-poor’.” implemented.I [have] come to Research published in The the conclusion that the only Lancet Infectious way we’re going to Diseases journal keep the R number shows there is no below one is if silver bullet for we layer up a dealing with combination of COVID-19 and interventions, rather physical distancing is than relying on one.” needed alongside CIEH is concerned contact tracing and at the ‘rush’ to reduce ‘Fact-poor’ reporting the 2m guidance. self-isolation. Hannah Fry, co-author of the “Maintaining social distancing study,said: “[The study] uses within the hospitality industry one of the best sets we have on with alcohol present was going how people in the UK behave, to be difficult enough at 2m,” how they travel, who they said Debbie Wood, executive meet, how often they come into director for membership and contact with others. external affairs. “There is a real “This tries to go through the risk that by reducing the various measures suggested distance to 1m many people will – some of them at certain simply view this as the end of points have been thought of as social distancing in general.”

MEMBER NEWS

NEW FOOD QUALIFICATION The Advanced Professional Certificate in Food Hygiene and Standards Control (APC-Food) is for people who provide assurance that our food is safe and authentic, including those delivering official controls. It has

been developed in collaboration with the Food Standards Agency. The practical element, the Competency Development Portfolio (CDP), is available now and is accessible by practitioners with a CIEH-accredited degree. The academic element will be launched in September 2020. The CDP is also a replacement

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logbook for the Higher Certificate in Food Control. For further details, see the September issue of EHN.

EHRB CERTIFICATE OF REGISTRATION AWARDS Julie Bettridge, Hannen Bishop, Alannah Brennan, Vasile

Buzdugan, Percy Charakupa, Nicole Cawley, Kimberly Chung, Victoria Cotterill, Slaine Cullen, Martin Cumming, Oliver Davies, Isobel Dawson, Eve Draper, Simon Duffy, Aidan Falls, Sarah Fox, Adam Hicks, Victoria Kendall, Phumzile Mahlanya, Katie McCourt, Ingrid Robb, Oksana Sami, Sabina Warisw.

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As lockdown eases and crowds gather, experts call for directors of public health to be put in charge of control measures

Contact tracing should ‘be led by local authorities’, health researchers say In BMJ article, experts list catalogue of errors in UK government’s pandemic response HITEHALL’S “abysmal” response to the pandemic has led to COVID-19 cases being missed, according to health experts writing in the British Medical Journal. Authors of the journal’s analysis piece argued that the UK government has eroded England’s established system of local infectious disease control over several decades. And at the start of the pandemic, instead of strengthening the existing system, it set up an “ad hoc” parallel scheme, relying on private companies for testing and contact tracing. Barrister and principal research associate Peter Roderick from Newcastle University and colleagues called for contact tracing and testing to “be led by

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local authorities and coordinated nationally”. The BMJ piece lists a whole catalogue of issues with the pandemic response that need to be rectified – around delays, missing test results, poor communication, and local

authorities not being given crucial data. They want to see directors of public health put in charge of contact tracing, and NHS 111, COVID-19 call centres and clinical assessment teams reintegrated immediately

CENTRAL SYSTEM TOO SLOW A level one EHP contact tracer (who asked to remain anonymous) firmly believes that more EHPs should be involved in the response. “The English system has been nationally led, and London based, and local authorities have been pushed aside. The government has recently talked about localised

lockdowns, which is basically going back to how it should have been at the start.” He argued that the centralised approach has not only been too slow to set up, but will have cost more money, which he is deeply troubled by when local authority funding has been so drastically diminished over years, amounting to “a slow death by a thousand cuts”.

into primary care and resourced GP practices. However, they warned that these steps were “remedial” and still didn’t amount to a “coherent and adequate” public health response to the pandemic in England. They argued: “Such a response requires local authorities, NHS, and PHE laboratories to be sufficiently resourced to take the lead on contact tracing and testing, and general practices being resourced to support patients, under central coordination.” They added: “In the longer term, the abysmal response of the government to the epidemic has served to underline the need for legislation to rebuild and reintegrate a strong local communicable disease control system.”

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CCC pushes for green recovery from COVID Report urges government to address climate change in post-pandemic steps

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mark a historic turning point in tackling the climate emergency, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said in its annual report to Parliament. Positive environmental behaviours that have emerged in lockdown such as walking, cycling and working remotely must be preserved and built on. In addition, the CCC argued, the economic recovery must be green. The CCC wants to see investment in green technologies and infrastructure, ES MEASUR MENDS retraining and reskilling of Y C N THE CCC RECOM IE IC Y EFF the workforce for these new NERG TO IMPROVE E sectors, and funding for low Chair of the CCC’s carbon science and innovation. adaptation committee Baroness Brown of Cambridge THERE FOR THE TAKING said: “COVID-19 has shown CCC chair Lord Deben said: that planning for systemic “The UK is facing its biggest risks is unavoidable. We have economic shock for a warned repeatedly that the generation. Meanwhile, the UK is poorly prepared for global crisis of climate change the very serious impacts of is accelerating. We have a climate change, including once-in-a-lifetime opportunity flooding, overheating and to address these urgent water shortages. challenges together; it’s there “Now is the moment to for the taking. get our house in order, “The steps that the UK takes coordinate national planning, to rebuild from the COVID-19 and prepare for the inevitable pandemic can accelerate the changes ahead.” transition to a successful The CCC reports to and low-carbon economy Whitehall annually, and for and improve our climate the first time this year it gave resilience. Choices that lock its recommendations by in emissions or climate risks government department. are unacceptable.” Strong coordination across The report echoes the Whitehall was called for to committee’s letter sent to the accelerate progress, before the prime minister Boris Johnson back in May, which urged him to ensure the recovery integrated actions towards low carbon emissions, and climate adaptations.

“The UK is poorly prepared for the very serious impacts of climate change”

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UK hosts the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow next year. Recommendations in the report include low-carbon retrofits to make buildings energy and water efficient, as well as making it easier for people to cycle, walk and work remotely, and supporting bike share schemes.

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A CIRCULAR ECONOMY Within the next five years, as part of moving towards a circular economy, the UK must increase reuse and recycling, and stop sending biodegradable waste to landfill. Local authorities must invest in separated waste collections and recycling infrastructure. Substantial changes in uses of land including tree planting, peat land restoration and green infrastructure were called for, as well as increased investment in clean energy, including new hydrogen and carbon capture, and fast-tracking of electric vehicle charging points.

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Siberia is experiencing its second heatwave of 2020. The first image from the Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite shows the land surface temperature (LST) on 19 June 2020. LST can be thought of as “skin surface temperatures of the earth”. It shows large areas of Siberia’s LST within the Arctic Circle exceeding 40°C, and is striking in its contrast to the temperatures recorded the previous year. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the town of Verhojansk in the east of Siberia, known for its exceptionally cold winters, hit 38°C on this day.

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EUROPEAN UNION, COPERNICUS SENTINEL-3 IMAGERY

TOO HOT TO HANDLE

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EH-led response kept Australian COVID-19 cases under control

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the forefront of the response to COVID-19 in Queensland, Australia, where the pandemic has been relatively well contained. Queensland has the third highest number of confirmed cases in the country at just over 1,000 (behind Victoria and New South Wales), but to date it has had only six deaths, and no new cases in the past few days (as EHN went to press). The state has a network of public health units, which employ EHPs. These units sprang into action as COVID-19 approached.

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Public health officials provide information at the airport, and army and council staff work together at the incident unit

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PANDEMIC PREPARATION The director of the Metro North Public Health Unit (PHU) in Brisbane, John Piispanen, is himself an EHP. The unit, which aims to prevent illness and disease and improve the health of the community, employs around 60 specialists, including physicians, nurses, epidemiologists, entomologists and 21 EHPs. In early 2020 it set up an incident management team to deal with the COVID-19 threat. “Regular disaster training exercises with local government disaster management teams (including EH officers) and the state public health units ensured EH officers in Queensland were prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic long before it reached our shores,” said Piispanen. EH team leaders have been working on rotation in the role of site commander of the Metro North PHU’s incident managementteam. “Metro North PHU led the response, which involved all levels of WWW.CIEH.ORG

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“Disaster training exercises … ensured EH officers were prepared for the pandemic long before it reached our shores” government working together and serving a common purpose, namely Australian Defence Force members, Brisbane City Council EH officers and PHUs’ EH officers,” Piispanen said. One of the Metro North PHU’s EH team leaders, Harold Figueroa, said: “I believe that this pandemic has validated what our EH profession is all about. It was an opportunity to showcase to the public, government and the world the crucial role that EH professionals perform.” Both Figueroa and Piispanen have previously been deployed

to Sierra Leone in response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa. When COVID-19 presented, they were keen to draw on that experience. Figueroa said: “After [my] involvement in the Ebola response in a developing country, this local response has cemented my commitment to public health interventions in a metropolitan, first-world setting that faces a different type of challenge altogether.”

THE NEXT PHASE A member of the Metro North PHU’s EH team, Rebecca Walker, was on secondment to

the state Communicable Diseases Branch when the pandemic hit. She therefore found herself working in the state-level incident unit, although still working closely with Figueroa and Piispanen. She said: “So far, the Queensland community has successfully ‘flattened the curve’ and avoided scenarios seen in other countries. This has allowed the Queensland government to rapidly expand testing capacity and public health units to increase their ability to respond to high numbers of cases. The hard work done by public health clinicians, including EH, has put Queensland in a good place to manage the next phase of easing restrictions.”

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The big interview VERSION

OCAL AUTHORITIES have delivered some of the most innovative and vital services during the pandemic, in sharp contrast with central government’s performance, which has seen multiple U-turns and received a lot of criticism. Whether it’s setting up food hubs or a bespoke local test and trace system, as in the case of Ceredigion Council, local authorities have been hitting it out of the park. So isn’t it time Whitehall stopped tying their hands? Adam Lent, director of the New Local Government Network, believes so. EHN Extra first caught up with Lent about proposals floating around central government to move planning decisions from local councils to Whitehall – as if this would simplify and speed up the process. Lent gave the idea short shrift. But the idea of a ‘parent’ central government telling its local government ‘children’ that “it knows best” is more far-reaching than planning alone, Lent argues. EHN talked to him again to find out what he hopes will happen next. “The pandemic has highlighted how that centralised set of powers and that ‘we

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checks enforcing COVID-19 infection control measures when people go back to work. But there was no mention of local authorities, which also have responsibility for health and safety enforcement. The money also does not mitigate the £100m the HSE has lost in funding since 2010. “That seems to be the preference of the government – to prioritise large central TEST AND TRACE ‘FIASCO’ bodies, which are answerable to central The best example of the problems caused governments, and large corporations to by central government sidelining local deliver the pandemic response. government, he says, is the test and trace “There seems to be this general allergic system, which he describes as a “fiasco”. reaction to the idea that local councils, and “The government took this decision at the other local services, should be taken beginning of the pandemic to use Public seriously as places that had anything Health England as the main organisation to important to say about the pandemic develop and deliver test and trace. And response, or should be at the heart of then they had to abandon that in March delivery. But obviously local councils have when it was realised that Public Health been doing a lot of delivery of the England couldn’t offer anything like the pandemic response. They have had to.” capacity to do that. Does Whitehall not know what local “So local government, which is full of government, or certainly EH, can provide? public health experts, has huge amounts of “I think they know perfectly well what public health expertise, does loads of test capacity and expertise is available in local and trace in other areas, just wasn’t brought government. They have civil servants in into that picture. Obviously, the government MHCLG, Department of Health, who know has sort of recanted on that a bit in recent perfectly well,” says Lent. weeks, but it’s still an uphill battle.” “I think there is a general belief that At the end of May the Health and Safety local government is not able to do this stuff Executive was handed £14m to do spot very well, which is sort of ironic when you

know best’ culture has caused all sorts of problems and confusion and a very chaotic response,” says Lent. “The centre has tried to exert its control very strongly over the pandemic response and has largely cut local areas, local services and councils out of the decision-making process and, to a certain extent, delivery as well.”

‘ THAT “WE KNOW BEST” CULTURE HAS CAUSED ALL SORTS OF PROBLEMS’ Adam Lent, director of the New Local Government Network thinktank, wishes central government would recognise the expertise of local authorities BY KATIE COYNE 12 ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH NEWS / JULY/AUGUST 2020

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BUNGLED DEVOLUTION While central government clings to the reins there have been aborted efforts over the past decade at what Lent describes as a “very incomplete, very awkward and cumbersome” process of devolution. He argues that what is needed is an “unfussy” transfer of power down to local councils, with an expectation that they and other local services will collaborate on delivery both locally and regionally. “What we’ve seen instead is a very clunky process of devolution, where local areas are expected to make all sorts of radical changes to how they’re structured and come up with these complex plans for how they will implement their new devolved powers and

“Local government, which is full of public health experts, wasn’t brought into the picture”

never really thinks about the way in which services are delivered, which in my view is far more important. You know, what is the culture? Is it community led? Does the community have a say?”

LOCAL EXPERTISE Other developed countries have clear and resources. It’s incredibly cumbersome, established set of principles around where incredibly slow and it all ran into the weeds three or four years ago. And the government power and responsibility lie. “So you look at something like the Danish constitution, wants to do that again: it wants to launch a and it’s clear that municipal authorities whole new process of devolution and communities have a say and some deal-making. We need straightforward level of self-determination over how they devolution of key powers to local areas.” run their own affairs. We don’t have Rather than obsessing over their anything like that. It’s unwritten and very structure, Lent argues, local authorities unclear, and with central government need a plan on how to fund themselves taking power when and where it wants. and, most importantly, a shift to a more “Central government has a fundamental community-led model. Funding plans role in coordinating, setting overarching were being developed with a view to direction, and setting floors on the sorts of devolving business rates so the majority service levels that we should expect across went to local authorities, but all of this the country. But what their role is not is to stalled with the Brexit referendum. design everything at the micro level and “It’s about local communities really having a say over how services are designed, take total control of things that are far better delivered locally. how they are delivered, taking a big part in “Other countries in Europe, which tend the delivery of those services rather than to be much more decentralised, think it’s replicating the sort of top-down model utterly hilarious that we have a national we’ve got at the moment. debate about bin collections, “The government messes MICRO MAYHEM and pot holes.” around with structures and Lent argues that central government has “a total lack of self-awareness” that others may deliver services better

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Big Interview Adam Lent, 1

look at central government’s record on a whole variety of issues, but particularly during the pandemic.” Job Centre Plus, for example, Lent picks out as having an “abysmal” record in getting those with mental health issues or disabilities back into work. “And everyone knows all the problems that have emerged with Universal Credit.” He adds: “It’s a total lack of self-awareness. It never seems to occur to them that maybe there are other ways, and other bodies, that could deliver these services better.”

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WITH EH SUPPORT, BUSINESSES ARE GETTING READY TO OPEN AS SAFELY AS THEY CAN

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As the retail and restaurant industries take their first steps out of lockdown, EHPs in the public and private sectors are hard at work supporting businesses back into … well … business BY MARK HUNTER

ROM THEIR kitchen table workstations and spare room offices, EHPs have overseen four months of the most extreme public health crisis in modern times. Now, as Britain slowly goes back to work and many businesses are given the green light to reopen (although notably and unfortunately not in Leicester, which had just entered a new local lockdown as EHN went to press), EHPs are guiding businesses towards the new normal. “We are in totally uncharted territory,” says Carole Milligan, chartered EHP at Islington Council. “We’ve all had to adapt to a completely different way of working.” For most of the Islington team this means working from home, travelling only when necessary and dealing with local businesses over the phone or online. With many businesses closed completely, some operating remodelled services and others fully functioning, the council has had to revamp its approach to environmental health. Inspections that a few months ago would have involved a thorough site visit are now being carried out remotely with businesses required to submit photographic, video and documentary evidence. “We’ve had to use a number of inventive ways to verify that the

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controls are put in place,” says Milligan. “We’ve also produced a lot of guidance for businesses during lockdown, for those that have been operating and those that have closed their premises.” This guidance is delivered online, through printed materials and via a duty line staffed by EHPs. Alongside guidance on how to deal with COVID-specific measures such as social distancing, queuing systems, handwashing and sanitisation, EHPs are offering advice on how to expand safely into new business areas. “To stay open, some businesses have had to offer services they don’t have a lot of experience in, like setting up a takeaway or delivery option. So there may be things they haven’t considered, like how to communicate allergen information. We are supporting them with that.” One of the biggest issues facing businesses on reopening is how to ensure the safety of premises that have been unused for several months. According to Melissa Thompson, managing director of consultancy Safer Food Scores, this may mean going back to basics. “If the premises have been unused you’ve got to have a deep clean to start with. Not from a COVID point of view – that’s not a worry if nobody’s been there – but from a general health and safety point of view. Pest control should have been kept going throughout the lockdown but not everybodywill have done that. Water safety is another issue. If the water system has been allowed to go stagnant you will have to bring in some legionella expertise and develop a recommissioning plan.” Through its COVID-Safe UK quality mark, Safer Food Scores offers validated support for businesses dealing with the pandemic. For many this will mean redesigning their workplaces to meet government guidelines. This may involve introducing one-way systems, hand sanitisation stations and improved ventilation, all of which has to be done without compromising access to fire exits or obscuring fire alarms.

CLEAN LIVING EHPs are helping businesses implement social-distancing systems, and handwashing and sanitisation protocols

Rob Townsend, chief marketing officer of consultancy Shield Safety Group, points out that many businesses have been left in the dark over starting dates and this has interrupted supply chains. “It takes three weeks to brew a cask ale,” he says. “Then it has to be distributed. You may have had to take a punt on your opening date and if you get it wrong you’ll be throwing away a lot of beer. At the start of this 70 million pints were thrown away.” Shield Safety administers the Safe to Trade Scheme which supports businesses to reopen. This includes managing the return of furloughed staff, says Townsend. “You need to decide who to bring back in and

“EHPs are likely to play a significant role in ensuring businesses deal responsibly with a COVID outbreak”

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when. Those that haven’tworked for three months may need retraining.” There are also issues around health screening, shielding, transport concerns and how to ensure social distancing. Probably the most difficult issue to deal with will be if there is a COVID outbreak in the workplace. EHPs are likely to play a significant role in ensuring businesses deal responsibly with this scenario. Tim Glews, public protection manager at Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, explains: “We will be involved with the test and trace scheme. If more than one employee tests positive at one of the 5,000 businesses for which we are the health and safety regulatory authority, [that’s considered] an outbreak. “We will then be contacted by Public Health England and our role will be to work with the business and explain what needs to be done in terms of isolation so that we can help to keep the R number well below 1. That could mean some very difficult conversations with businesses that may have only just reopened.” One local business that has just reopened (on Monday 15 June) to customers is Dudley Zoo. Its keepers have continued working through lockdown to ensure the welfare of the animals. “The most difficult thing has been the uncertainty,” says manager Matt Lewis. “We’d been arguing for reopening for weeks, but when the announcement came it was completely out of the blue.” To ensure public safety, the zoo has changed the entrance to reduce queuing, WWW.CIEH.ORG

Hawksmoor Air Street is preparing for business

SHUTTERSTOCK

THE RESTAURANT

WWW.CIEH.ORG

Steakhouse chain plans for every eventuality

Richard Cowell-Oakes, Hawksmoor’s head of operations

eliminated pinch points and limited the number of visitors. “It will be 300 people maximum to start with, staggered over five time slots. All will be pre-booked and there’ll be no cash taken on site,” says Lewis. As the council is the zoo’s licensing authority, Lewis works closely with the environmental health team, filing weekly reports and even helping officers deal with the problem of pets and strays that have been abandoned during the pandemic. Helen Statham, risk and compliance leader at KFC UK, also stresses the importance of cooperation between businesses and local authorities to ensure that returning staff and customers not only are safe, but feel safe. KFC began to open up its operations in April, initially with six restaurants delivering meals to NHS staff. It now has 745 outlets open. Throughout the company has worked closely with its two primary authorities, Woking and Powys. “I can’t be complimentary enough of the support they have given us,” says Statham. “We have aligned all our processes which are on the primary authority website so the EHOs can see what we are doing. It also gives them a point of contact, which is me. “The EHOs across the UK and Ireland have been amazing. Even where issues have been highlighted or questions raised we’ve been able to work through it. Partnership has been key in making this work. “An EHO inspection is valued because it gives you that external verification of your standards. Post-COVID our guests are going to be looking for really high standards and reassurance that they will be safe.”

The Hawksmoor’s eight restaurants have been closed for nearly four months, but head of operations Richard Cowell-Oakes has never worked harder. Forced to second-guess when he’ll get the green light to reopen and what the government guidelines will be, he has planned for every eventuality. “At the moment the distancing guidance is 2m. The WHO says 1m and some countries are using 1.5. I’ve got seating plans ready to go for all three.” He has also drawn up plans for what dining will look like in the late stages of a pandemic. “We don’t want people queueing up outside so we’ve rejigged the reservation system. Rather than taking 50 covers for 6pm, we’ll take smaller numbers at 25 minute intervals. Upright drinking will be a thing of the past – if you want

a pre-dinner drink we’ll serve them at the table.” The plans have all been shaped by the restaurant staff, most of whom have been furloughed. “They are as nervous as the customers so we’ve conducted surveys and taken on board their concerns,” says Cowell-Oakes. “This has gone into our health and safety plan and informed our policies on how to manage social distancing, the sanitisation, health screening, the cleaning protocols and staff training.” Even though the restaurants have been closed, some staff have come in on a voluntary basis to provide meals for the community. “People were bored so we opened up our kitchens and have been producing more than 1,000 meals a week. We have teamed up with a charity that is delivering donated food to people struggling during the lockdown.

“It’s a bit like Ready Steady Cook. We don’t know what ingredients we’re getting until they arrive at the kitchen. But the same food safety standards apply. We need to ensure that everything that comes in is safe and everything that goes out is safe, in terms of allergens, ingredients, storage, shelf life.” As the restaurants reopen, Cowell-Oakes expects customer confidence to return gradually. “It’s about finding the right balance between doing what we have to do to meet existing food safety regulations, meeting whatever guidelines are brought in to deal with the pandemic and on top of that doing everything we can to ensure our staff and customers feel safe. “Getting five stars for your food safety isn’t worth much if people don’t feel your COVID protection is good enough.”

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The wrong arm of the law Using the correct legislation matters – as the recent coronavirus prosecutions debacle amply demonstrates

Written by JULIE BARRATT

WWW.CIEH.ORG

LISA MALTBY SHUTTERSTOCK,

CLIENT

The police incorrectly used Schedule 21 rather than later regulations to charge people for breaking lockdown rules

HE CORONAVIRUS

Act 2020 made a hurried appearance onto the statute books. It didn’t benefit from the usual debate and dissection and critically there has been insufficient time to ensure that enforcement officers, in this case the police, know and understand the ins and outs of the legislation, which took effect almost as soon as its ink was dry. The Act is an important piece of legislation because it restricts the rights of certain individuals. It was written when the accepted belief was that the greatest risk was from people with coronavirus coming

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into the UK from ‘infected areas outside of the UK’, and that to protect the population at large the behaviour of these incomers had to be closely controlled. Section 51 of the Act is headed: ‘Powers relating to potentially infectious persons’ (those powers are listed in Schedule 21). It allows for the detention and testing of persons believed to be infectious, contains various restrictions that can be imposed on them, and contains a list of offences that can be committed under the Schedule. Subsequently, further coronavirus regulations have been enacted relating variously to closure

of businesses, footpaths and national parks, and banning events and restricting gatherings. Critically,these regulations apply to the population as a whole and are not solely to ‘potentially infectious persons’. It has now come to light that of 231 people charged with offences relating to coronavirus, 175 were wrongly charged because they were charged under Schedule 21 of the Act rather than under the appropriate regulations. The critical issue here was that there was no reason to suspect they were potentially infectious, as would have been necessary

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to satisfy the requirements of Schedule 21. There is no doubt that the activities complained of – which included driving from London to Leicester to attend a party, drinking in a large group in a park and refusing to go home when instructed – could have been successfully prosecuted had they been brought under the correct regulations. But in the absence of evidence of anyone being potentially infectious they could not be brought under the provisions of Schedule 21. To add insult to injury, Schedule 21 does not contain appeal provisions, meaning that those wrongfully convicted have to rely on the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) seeking to have the conviction dismissed and withdrawing cases that had not yet proceeded to trial. The CPS and the police have apologised for the errors in charging and prosecuting but have quite rightly been criticised from all sides. The CPS pointed out that the law is new and it was running to keep up, but that is cold comfort for those incorrectly charged and convicted. There is a lesson here for all enforcement officers. The essential failing was that neither the police nor the CPS had applied the correct legislation to the facts and that was case-fatal. It’s important that the public should be confident that enforcement is reasonable, proportionate and – critically – lawful. Enforcement officers and lawyers cannot afford to make mistakes that prejudice individuals and undermine confidence in the way in which the law is applied and enforced.

PRO SECUT IONS This month’s case at a prestigious hotel and the lessons learned

Liverpool’s 30 James Street Hotel

Mouse droppings punch £60k hole in Titanic-themed hotel’s finances AUTHORITY: Liverpool City Council DEFENDANTS: Signature Living Hotel Ltd OUTCOME: £34,000 fine; £26,877 costs OFFENCES UNDER: Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013

HAD A SUCCESSFUL PROSECUTION? Please tell us about it: email editor@cieh.org

THE STORY A complaint from a member of the public prompted an inspection to 30 James Street Hotel, a popular Titanic-themed venue for weddings and functions, in March 2018. EH officers were horrified to discover a large infestation of mice – including dead ones – behind the cooking equipment in the hotel’s Grand Hall kitchen, with mouse droppings also on food preparation surfaces, next to catering equipment and crockery. In the Carpathia kitchen, mouse droppings were found inside frying pans near the cooker. In both kitchens, there were further droppings under cooking equipment, fridges and freezers. The kitchens were generally gravely unclean, and a build-up of food debris and grease had provided the pests with an ample food source. The officers found gaps and holes in the walls, which the mice had probably used to enter the premises.

HOW IT PLAYED OUT The kitchens were shut down as they presented an “imminent risk to health”. After remedial works they were allowed to reopen. However, in an unannounced food hygiene inspection in September, more mouse droppings were seen in the Carpathia kitchen and on the floor in the basement storage area. In court, the judge heard that pest infestations have been an ongoing problem for the hotel since 2016, and pest reports revealed that the hotel’s pest contractor had frequently recommended “deep cleaning” and storing food in sealed containers. LESSONS LEARNED The EH team wasn’t available to talk to EHN, but Liverpool City Council’s cabinet member for highways and city services, Sharon Connor, said: “The scene that our EH officers found at 30 James Street Hotel in March 2018 was shocking – and not what anyone would expect to find in a prime city centre establishment like this. The level of the fine, albeit reduced because of the impact of COVID-19, reflects the seriousness of the charge and threat to the public’s health.”

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The best recovery will take a bottom-up approach and will also support those EHPs taking the strain

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How to avoid a collective adrenalin crash as the COVID-19 situation evolves OVID-19 HAS BEEN

Written by ROB WEAVER

LISA MALTBY SHUTTERSTOCK,

CLIENT

Leading a team out of this crisis very different to the more ‘typical’ emergency planning that EHPs are usually in the thick of, not least because of the length of time the emergency has lasted. With a fire, flood or food poisoning outbreak, the response lasts for days, sometimes weeks, before moving into the recovery phase and allowing some respite for those on the frontline. However, the COVID-19 response is still very much ongoing and it’s important that as leaders we don’t allow our teams to run on empty. Here are a few tips that leaders might want to think about at this stage in the crisis.

FIND OUT WHAT SUPPORT YOUR TEAM REALLY NEEDS It can be tempting to think that the best way to show your support is to be out there with the team but this is

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not always the best approach. What the team really needs is someone who can identify what problems are likely to arise, and head them off at the pass. Here’s an example: many EH teams will have been involved in ‘help hubs’, supporting shielding and vulnerable residents to get prescriptions, food parcels and assistance walking dogs, and putting out the bins. But these services have been running seven days a week and, in many cases, the friendly voice on the end of the phone is the only contact vulnerable residents may have with the outside world – it becomes their lifeline. The mental strain of managing these conversations can take its toll. So leadership through sourcing and quickly setting up online mental health and awareness training, delivered by professionals, can be a much better way of

supporting the team than joining them on the phones.

PLAN FOR RECOVERY … With many high streets reopening, EHPs are starting to lead the recovery planning process at a local level (see page 14). But what does ‘recovery’ look like? It’s easy to focus on what our businesses and communities will need to recover, without thinking of the best way to support those who will be leading the recovery. Good leadership is about involving the teams in briefing sessions.

… FROM THE BOTTOM UP The best recovery plans are the ones that have been shaped by those at the coal face, who understand what works at a local level – and for leaders to heed their advice. There’s a time and a place for high-level strategy, but COVID-19 recovery will be all about a ‘bottom-up’ WWW.CIEH.ORG

FIND A NEW WAY OF WORKING – SUSTAINABLY Being resilient, adaptable and good in a crisis are prerequisites for EHPs. But such behaviour cannot be maintained indefinitely. Creating a sustainable environment – and reflecting on the mindset that will be required to do this – is essential to get the team back on a long-term footing.

WHAT HAS WORKED? No one, no matter where they are in the hierarchy, truly understood the implications of the crisis when it hit us. But this solidarity of shared purpose and group learning has brought teams together, for the better, as we sought solutions to problems. I’ve seen team members assigned tasks based on their strengths, not necessarily job roles. I’ve seen usually quiet team members speak up and be listened to, as all suggestions are valid when no one knows how to deal with a problem. Siloes were broken down as response ‘cells’ were created and members of different teams worked together. The ‘space’ was created to allow this new way of working to flourish. Leaders now have the difficult task of harnessing this mindset – and making it the ‘new normal’. ABOUT THE WRITER

Robert Weaver is an EHP and deputy chief executive of Tewkesbury Borough Council. He has more than 20 years’ experience of local government, mainly in the regulatory and developmentmanagement sectors WWW.CIEH.ORG

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approach and locally shaped initiatives with senior management support. As an effective leader, there’s a difference between working with a team to collaboratively arrive at decisions, and working at a team, where views are heard but decisions have been made long before the meeting started.

A note on CIEH’s plans for its events programme BY NIKKI PEARSON, CONFERENCE AND EVENTS MANAGER

Like everyone else in the country, we’ve had to adapt to a new way of working through the COVID-19 pandemic. For the events team, that meant cancelling our face-toface events and finding new ways to bring CIEH members together to discuss important issues. So we set up a series of free webinars, attracting up to 1,000 participants at a time (you can watch them again at www.cieh.org/policy/ coronavirus-covid-19/webinars). We have proved we can run online events successfully and these will form part of our events offering in the future – but they can never totally replace face-to-face events as powerful tools for providing growth opportunities at a personal and professional level. We are planning to recommence delivery of our physical events programme in the next few months. Of course this depends on us being able

to run them safely – the wellbeing of our delegates, trainers and staff comes first – so the date is not yet fixed. CHANGES TO HOW EVENTS ARE RUN MAY INCLUDE: 1. Reduced delegate numbers 2. Different room layouts to allow for correct spacing between seats

3. Fixed seating plan, with each delegate given their own personal space 4. Personalised refreshments – no buffets or sharing 5. Lots of hand sanitation points 6. Toilets to be used in phases Please keep an eye on www. cieh.org/events for updates.

CI EH EV EN T S As EHN went to press, conference venues remained shut. The events team is working towards restarting CIEH’s events programme in September 2020, but this will only happen if the rules allow and if the team feels they can run events safely. The team continues to review the COVID-19 situation and follow advice from the government and public health agencies.

CIEH 12th Housing and Health Conference 7 September, London

Yorkshire Member Forum Pest Control Update 7 October, Wakefield

Basic Electrical Awareness Workshop 10 September, Manchester

HMO Enforcement 8 October, London

Understanding HHSRS 16 September and 4 November, London Management of Noise at Outdoor Music Events 23 September and 26 November, London KEY

Workshop

Statutory Nuisance Law and Residential Property 13 October, London Managing and Regulating Allergens in the Food Industry 20 October, London CIEH Food Safety

Conference 22 October, London CIEH Pest Control Conference: Safeguarding Public Health 3 November, London HMO Practical Inspection 4 November, London HHSRS Enforcement 12 November, London Basic Electrical Awareness Workshop 18 November, London

Conference BOOK www.cieh.org/events

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