Agenda item

The Service Director Culture, Housing and Regulation and the Director of Legal and Governance will submit a joint report recommending Council to approve amendments to the Terms of Reference of the General and Statutory Licensing regulatory Boards following an Internal Audit report into Taxi and Premises Licensing.

RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL that the Terms of Reference of the General and Statutory Licensing Regulatory Boards be amended as detailed within Appendix 1 to the report.

The Service Director Culture, Housing and Regulation and Director of Legal and Governance submitted a joint report recommending the Council to approve amendments to the Terms of Reference of the General and Statutory Licensing Regulatory Boards following an Internal Audit Report into Taxi and Premises Licensing.

The review of the Terms of Reference had been initiated following an Internal Audit of the Licensing Service as part of a wider review of the Service following the corporate inspection of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council and the publication of the Casey Report into Child Sexual Exploitation on 4^th February, 2015. 

The Internal Audit had identified a control adequacy issue relating to the Terms of Reference as they did not include reference to the role of Members with regard to safeguarding and consequently, it was felt that Members may not be fully aware of their safeguarding responsibilities.  Internal Audit had recommended that a review of the Terms of Reference should be undertaken to ensure that these roles and responsibilities was explicit.

A review had, therefore, been undertaken within the context of the findings of the Internal Audit Review, the Casey Report and the Safeguarding Framework.  The opportunity had also been taken to amend the Terms of Reference of both the General and Statutory Licensing Regulatory Boards and to make minor drafting amendments to ensure they remained fit for purpose.

In the ensuing discussion, the following matters were raised:

·         It was acknowledged that the Terms of Reference were about functions and powers and not about how those functions were applied. 

·         It was also noted that one of the issues arising from the Internal Audit review related to the absence of an effective programme of safeguarding training in order to ensure that service users, Members and Officers could recognise the signs of Child Sexual Exploitation and be aware of how to report the concerns.  These matters had also been identified within the Safeguarding Framework report submitted to Council on the 26^th November, 2015 and all had been addressed or were in the process of being addressed. 

·         Specific reference was made to the checks and balances in place to deal with foreign nationals who were not in a position to be able to produce a certificate of good repute from their country of origin.  It was noted that if there were any doubts about the character of an applicant, that application would not be granted.

·         Arising out of the above, the Senor Licensing Officer reported that the Immigration Service had held a meeting with the Service last week.  Whilst the final report was still awaited, it was understood that the Immigration Service had been impressed with the lengths that the Service went to ensure that prior to the grant of licences, all applicants and drivers were granted leave to work in the UK and were (and remained) fit and proper persons to hold such licences.  It was anticipated that a more detailed report on the outcome of this inspection would be submitted to the next meeting of the Board

·         It was felt that, as far as was reasonably practicable, appropriate and robust processes and procedures were in place to ensure that issues of Safeguarding and CSE were picked up

·         Reference was made to paragraph 1(c) of the Terms of Reference and in response the Principal Licensing Officer stated that a report on all licences issued, renewed or refused would be submitted to a future meeting.

RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL that the Terms of Reference of the General and Statutory Licensing Regulatory Bards be amended as detailed within Appendix 1 to the report now submitted.