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The Environmental Health section of your Local Authority will carry out routine inspections of licensed premises as well as inspections following a complaint by a member of the public. Issues investigated will be the cleanliness of your premises, the presence or otherwise of risk assessments in relation to certain parts of your operation and specifically following an accident of any description, should one occur.
Prosecutions are not unusual and usually commenced by an invitation to attend the Council Offices for an interview under caution. This is the first and most important part of the investigative process from your point of view. You must be legally represented.
This area has been further regulated with the introduction of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 which came into force in April 2008. The intention is to make it easier to prosecute companies for fatalities arising in their course of their business, and to increase penalties!
As well as considering the cleanliness of your kitchen, the Environmental Health Officer will also be interested in the storage of food and the temperatures at which the food is maintained. Even the products used to clean premises may be subject to regulations concerning the control of substances hazardous to health (COSHH).
It is once again imperative that you have risk assessments in place as failure to do so is in itself a criminal offence. Again, if invited for an interview under caution contact us immediately.
For more information on courses relating to Health and Safety see our sister training company, Poppleston Allen Training.
For more information and training courses, please go to the Security Industry Authority (SIA) website.
If you have any queries please contact Graeme Cushion.
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