The CIEH Chief Executive joined senior regulators and business organisations to launch Trading Places – a new government initiative to show local authority staff first-hand how their decisions affect the businesses they inspect.
Supported by the CIEH, it is hoped that by the end of 2009 hundreds of council environmental health, trading standards, licensing and fire safety officers will have spent two days in branches of major retailers and other companies – finding out the lengths companies must go to in complying with the law.
CIEH Chief Executive Graham Jukes said:
“Reducing health risks for communities and organisations without burdensome regulation remains at the heart of our work, so Trading Places is a good way to build on knowledge and understanding for both environmental health practitioners and business.”
Over the course of the two days, participants will hear about how a business is run and see the challenges that companies could face in complying with trading laws.
The Local Better Regulation Office (LBRO) scheme has been endorsed by the CIEH, the Trading Standards Institute, the Confederation of British Industry, the British Retail Consortium and the British Chamber of Commerce.
The CIEH is encouraging front line practitioners to take part in the scheme. Please visit the LBRO website where you can register your interest online at: http://www.lbro.org.uk/Pages/Article.aspx?id=342.
Graham has spent time at both Sainsbury’s and Tesco, receiving an overview of their operations, talking to staff and getting to grips with routine regulatory issues such as check out procedures and stock rotation.
The scheme is now being rolled out nationally following a successful pilot in 2008 among major retailers including Sainsbury’s Tesco, B&Q and Asda. Almost 30 local authority officers took part.