Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Beynon, Chicken, Humphrey, Seymour, Wallace and P Soderquest.

The minutes of the meeting of the Licensing Committee held on Wednesday 15 June 2022, as circulated be confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chair.

4.1      GAMBLING ACT 

The Statement of Principles Policy for the Gambling Act 2005 is due for review and officers seek approval for the formal consultation process to commence. 

4.2      TRADING STANDARDS UPDATE 

Members will be provided with a presentation. 

07.1    GAMBLING ACT 

Members were advised of a proposed consultation regarding the Statement of Principles Policy and approval was sought to consult on the proposed Statement of Principles for the Gambling Act 2005. 

There had been no notable changes in the regulations issued by the Secretary of State or guidance by the Gambling Commission that materially affected the current Statement of Principles.   

As significant changes to the policy had been carried out in 2015, officers were not proposing any significant changes to the current policy and to seek views of consultees as to whether any changes were required.  The current statement was attached as Appendix A to the report. 

RESOLVED that the content of the report and intention to undertake consultation be noted. 

07.2    TRADING STANDARDS UPDATE 

Laura Brooks, Trading Standards and Animal Health Manager shared a presentation with members which provided information on under age restricted sales and illicit tobacco products.  (Presentation attached to the signed minutes). 

Following the presentation, the following information was given in response to questions:- 

• Trading Standards would work with shop owners and educate on Proxy sales and current law.   
• There was no specific marking on packaging for alcohol, but there were lot numbers which could be traced back.  Work would be carried out with the supplier and also intelligence shared with the police. 
• Trading Standards carried out work across the country, regionally and nationally and also used an Intelligence Data Base (IDB), which was actively shared with other authorities. 

• Ms Brooks explained that she had been in her present post for just over one year and covid restrictions had still been in place when she had commenced her post.  It was an ideal time to start building up relationship with partners to share information. 
• The Refusals Register was a contentious issue, and sometimes not completed truthfully.  Often staff did not know how to complete register. 
• With reference to black market tobacco sales, this very much depended on intelligence and more work was to be carried out to identify issues but this was not straight forward in terms of regulation. 
• It was difficult identifying illegal vapes as this depended on tank size.  Often illegal vapes were hidden away. 
• The new legislation for energy drinks had not yet come into force and this had to be dealt with on an advisory basis until law came into force. 
• It was not a criminal offence to sell multipack items providing food labelling was correct and all information included. 
• With respect to visiting premises - every piece of intelligence was acted on and a KPI for Trading Standards.  People could only be contacted if they were on record however, because of GDPR that information could not be shared with anyone else. 

The officer was thanked for her presentation. 

RESOLVED that the information was noted. 

The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 20 December 2022

RESOLVED that the next meeting of the Licensing Committee will be held on Tuesday 20 December 2022.