Agenda and minutes

Apologies were given from Cllrs Dominic Barnes, Paul Griffin, Sir Beville Stanier Bt, Jocelyn Towns and Gurinder Wadhwa.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 15^th June 2022

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 15th June 2022 were agreed as a correct record.

The Licensing Committee received a report on the harmonisation of skin piercing registration requirements and model byelaws for skin piercing activities. This report sought Members’ approval for the adoption of model byelaws for the safe practice of acupuncture, tattooing, semi-permanent skin-colouring, cosmetic piercing and electrolysis across the whole district.

Currently Aylesbury, Chiltern and Wycombe legacy areas had adopted the provisions of sections 14 and 15 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982, which required the registration of businesses and persons who perform skin piercing namely tattooing, ear piercing, electrolysis and acupuncture. As part of a consolidation exercise, it was recommended that the provisions of sections 14 to 17 inclusive of the Act be adopted across the Buckinghamshire area.

At present, the Buckinghamshire area had existing byelaws from legacy council areas which dealt with the hygiene practices and procedures in relation to some or all of the practices of acupuncture, electrolysis, ear piercing, tattooing, cosmetic piercing (piercing of the body including the ear) and semi-permanent skin-colouring including micro pigmentation, semi-permanent make-up and temporary tattooing. However, these were not consistent across the whole of the Council area. A draft byelaw based on the consolidated set of model byelaws, which had been produced by the Department of Health, was attached at Appendix 1.  It was recommended that all existing byelaws from the legacy council areas in relation to semi-permanent skin-colouring and cosmetic piercing, acupuncture, ear piercing, electrolysis and tattooing or related be revoked and replaced by the consolidated set of model byelaws for the Buckinghamshire Council area.

If sections 14-17 of the Act and then the consolidated byelaws were not adopted, then there might be some members of the public who would not be adequately protected from unregistered businesses. By extending the range of activities that come within the registering regime, greater protection from the transmission of blood borne virus infections would be provided and improved enforcement provisions adopted.

As part of the adoption and confirmation processes for byelaws, the Council would be required to publish public notices as a one off exercise in local newspapers. Whilst the adoption and implementation processes for both the requirement to register business and byelaws would incur a cost to the Council, this would be met from within existing budgets.

If adopted, as well as the statutory requirements, such policy changes would be publicised on the Council’s web pages and existing businesses would be notified. Existing skin piercing businesses had already been notified of the potential change in policy as part of communication relating to the harmonisation of the registration fees.

If approved by Full Council on 21^st September 2022, the statutory implementation process after adoption of the registration requirements would be completed, new registration requirements policies would be created/extended pending formal implementation and related byelaws for cosmetic piercing, semi-permanent skin colouring, acupuncture, ear-piercing, electrolysis and tattooing would be drawn up in line with the consolidated model byelaws. An application to the Secretary of State would be made for confirmation of such byelaws covering the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

In accordance with the Animal Welfare Act 2006, Buckinghamshire Council, in its role as Licensing Authority, was responsible for authorising businesses that provide animal activities and ensuring that these activities meet statutory licensing and welfare standards that were prescribed by DEFRA. In addition, the Council was also responsible for licensing kept animals that were defined as dangerous wild animals under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 and for the licensing of zoos under the Zoo Licensing Act 1981. The Council was currently operating different charging structures for these licence activities across the legacy council areas. This report sought approval of a single harmonised fee structure for animal licensing activities across the Buckinghamshire Council area.

The Council’s constitution provided delegated responsibility to officers to set fees but recognised that it may be appropriate, under consultation with the portfolio holder, to refer a decision to the relevant Committee. Given the level of the changes proposed, it was considered that the Licensing Committee should review the proposed fees and charges and decide on the level to be set. There was no statutory requirement for public consultation when setting fees under the Acts and the proposed fees and charges were included within the report solely for the purposes of consideration and approval by the Committee. Fees should be set at a level to ensure full cost recovery whilst also being fair and providing value for money for the businesses. Councils were required to take a reasonable and proportionate approach and should aim to set a fee level that was sufficient to cover the cost, but not make a surplus.

The general methodology behind the review of these fees was determined by the document ‘Open for business: Local Government Association (LGA) guidance on locally set licence fees’. The core principles in the LGA guidance were that fees should be non-discriminatory; justified; reasonable and proportionate to the cost of the processes associated with a licensing scheme; clear; objective; made public in advance; transparent; and accessible. It was an accepted principle that licensed activities should be funded on a cost-recovery basis, paid for by those benefiting from the licensed activity, rather than drawing on the public purse.

A comprehensive review of the cost of delivering animal licensing services had been carried out and new fees were being proposed that reflected both the full staffing costs of running the service as well as the support service costs. The proposed fees and charges were provided at Appendix 1. The proposed Buckinghamshire Council fees had increased considerably on what was previously set for the legacy Aylesbury Vale and Chiltern and South Bucks areas, largely because of no significant review occurring of the regime since its initial introduction in 2018 when fee setting would have been wholly anticipatory.

Benchmarking of the proposed fees was undertaken with neighbouring local authorities, and with other licensing authorities where fee review had taken place since the introduction of the legislation in 2018. Current fees charged in the legacy district council areas, and the proposed fees  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Tuesday 6 September 2022 at 6.30pm

Post Meeting Note: the next meeting would be held on 09 November 2022 at 6.30pm (the meeting which was scheduled for 06 September 2022 had been cancelled).