Contact: Jenny Heath, Corporate Performance Manager, ext 7402

1 Purpose of the service under review

1.1 The Regulatory Services review will examine the impact that Trading Standards and Scientific Services have in protecting and meeting public and business needs.

1.2 The Council has a statutory duty to enforce a range of legislation through its Trading Standards service. The lengthy list of statutes is attached to the service specification provided to those Members represented in the review team.

2 Evaluation of whether the service offers Best Value

2.1 A new Best Value performance indicator was introduced for Trading Standards with effect from April 2001. It is in the form of a checklist and a score of around 90% is expected for 2001/02. An improved score is anticipated for 2002/03, following the review.

3 Best Value review details

3.1 This review will follow the revised, streamlined, Best Value process and focus on areas where there is potential for achieving improvements. Regulatory Services already has well established service planning, review and improvement processes in place, which provide an evaluation of the entire service. This information will be fed into the review as necessary rather than re-examined.

3.2 The attached project brief outlines the approach to be taken, which will start with establishing a vision for the service and the issues that need to be addressed to achieve it.

3.3 Paragraph 7 in the attached project brief has identified the areas in which direct costs are likely to occur and the demand on staff time. It is estimated that direct costs associated with consultation and expenses will be kept below £10,000 and that staff time will be below 100 days in total.

3.4 The following elected Members have been nominated to participate in the review:

· Cllr J V Bryant

· Cllr P Devereux

· Cllr P Luffman

· Cllr J Wall

Recommendation

1 That the approach to the review outlined in the attached project brief and timetable is agreed.

N.B. The list excludes:

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.