Agenda item

To approve the draft revised Street Trading Policy for public consultation, which includes an amendment to require an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check as a pre-requisite to obtaining a street trading licence, as set out at Appendix 3.

14.1          The report of the Environmental Health Manager, circulated at Pages No. 65-99, asked Members to approve, for public consultation, the draft revised Street Trading Policy, which included an amendment to require an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check as a pre-requisite to obtaining a street trading licence, as set out at Appendix 3 to the report. 

14.2           Members were advised that, at the Licensing Committee meeting on 14 June 2018, it was agreed that street traders should be consulted on the inclusion of an enhanced DBS check as a pre-requisite to obtaining a street trader’s licence.  On 11 September 2018, a letter was sent to the 17 licensed street traders within Tewkesbury Borough seeking their view on the proposed changes.  One response had been received which was generally supportive but raised concern about street traders having to pay for the DBS check themselves and that the check was not necessary for all types of street traders so factors such as location should be taken into consideration in terms of the likelihood of them coming into contact with vulnerable children.  The Environmental Health Officer indicated that, whilst it may be less likely that vulnerable children were able to visit street traders in areas that were difficult to access without a vehicle, vulnerable adults may still be able to access such areas and therefore the enhanced DBS checks should be applied to all street traders.  On that basis, it was recommended that this amendment be included within the draft revised policy for public consultation.

14.3          Several Members reiterated the importance of recognising that adults could be vulnerable as well as children and that it was necessary to create a safeguarding environment where all vulnerable persons were protected.  A Member drew attention to Page No. 77, Paragraph 3.3.1 of the draft revised policy, which stated that the Council would have regard to a number of factors in determining whether an applicant was a suitable person to carry out business as a street trader, and she questioned whether it was necessary to take account of ‘failure to make use of a previous street trading consent’.  In response, the Environmental Health Manager explained that this intended to prevent applications being made purely to block other traders from using a certain area. 

14.4           It was agreed that a minor amendment should be made to Page No. 76, Paragraph 3.2.1 of the draft revised policy to read: ‘Applicants applying for a new street trading consent will be expected to obtain will require an enhanced DBS certificate (formerly known as CRB) from the Disclosure and Barring Service, which must be no more than one calendar month old when submitted to the Council’ and that Paragraph 3.2.2 should be amended to state that: ‘The DBS certificate must be in the name and home address of the applicant as detailed on the application form’ as the DBS was personal to the applicant and separate from any business.  A Member noted that the draft revised policy had an implementation date of 1 March 2018 and she questioned whether the requirement to provide a DBS certificate would only apply to new applicants.  In response, the Environmental Health Manager advised that existing licence holders would be requested to provide the DBS certificate at the point of renewal; once the revised policy had been approved, officers would write to licenced traders to ensure they were aware of the changes.

14.5           A Member drew attention to Page No.77, Paragraph 3.3.2 of the draft revised policy which stated that ‘Identification badges will be issued by the Council to demonstrate the suitability of the consent holder and any assistants who may be trading on their behalf.  Other employees may not need to apply for DBS check and an identification badge as long as they are supervised at all times by a badge holder’.  She gave an example of a scenario where someone owned two or three ice cream vans and held a street trading consent in their name but sent out an employee to sell ice cream on their own and she questioned whether the employee would need to undergo a DBS check in that situation.  The Head of Community Services felt that this was a valid point and indicated that the policy would be reworded to ensure that any operatives working alone, who were likely to come into contact with vulnerable persons, would need to undergo a DBS check; it would not be reasonable to expect every employee to have a check, for example, employees carrying out food preparation who did not deal with customers directly.

14.6           With regard to the standard conditions, appended to the report at Annex D, a Member felt that the sixth bullet point on Page No. 95 ‘No television, radio, tape player or other device used for the entertainment of the operator, shall be audible outside, or beyond the trading unit’ seemed to contradict the additional conditions applicable to mobile food vendors, set out at Page No. 96, which stated that ‘Chimes should not be sounded [….] louder than 80db(A) at 7.5m’.  In response, clarification was provided that the first condition intended to prevent situations such as where a radio was being played too loudly from a catering van parked in a layby whereas the decibel level was specific to loudspeakers, used for ice cream van chimes, and was prescribed in legislation.

14.7           It was

RESOLVED          That the draft revised Street Trading Policy, including the amendment to require an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check as a pre-requisite to obtaining a street trading licence, as set out at Appendix 3 to the report, be APPROVED for public consultation, subject to the following amendments:

-           Page No. 76, Paragraph 3.2.1 of the draft revised policy to be amended to read: ‘Applicants applying for a new street trading consent will be expected to obtain will require an enhanced DBS certificate (formerly known as CRB) from the Disclosure and Barring Service, which must be no more than one calendar month old when submitted to the Council’;

-           Page No. 76, Paragraph 3.2.2 to be amended to read: ‘The DBS certificate must be in the name and home address of the applicant as detailed on the application form’; and,

-           Page No. 77, Paragraph 3.3.2 – ‘Identification badges will be issued by the Council to demonstrate the suitability of the consent holder and any assistants who may be trading on their behalf.  Other employees may not need to apply for DBS check and an identification badge as long as they are supervised at all times by a badge holder’ - To be reworded to ensure that any operatives working alone, who were likely to come into contact with vulnerable persons, would need to undergo a DBS check.