Day 132 - 07 Jun 95 - Page 23
1 city of just over a million population. I cannot comment
2 on how many premises. There was maybe, I do not know,
3 300,000 dwelling houses. I would not have the figures.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you cannot give a figure do not start
6 guessing.
7
8 MR. MORRIS: Environmental Health Officers are responsible for
9 all premises, not just commercial premises?
10 A. Well, they administer the law that applies to various
11 premises in various types, so with houses it is housing law
12 obviously. Yes, indeed, they deal with commercial premises
13 and so on. They do not deal with what you might very
14 loosely call factories because that is administered by the
15 Health and Safety Executive; neither do they deal with some
16 specific pollution problems which are dealt with by the
17 Pollution Inspectorate which once was called the alkalide
18 inspectorate.
19
20 Q. So of those 60, when you were working for them, what was
21 your specific brief?
22 A. Well, I was a pupil originally. I was a pupil for five
23 years, and then for a further 12 months I had a small patch
24 of the city where I covered a whole range of functions as
25 an Environmental Health Officer -- as then a Public Health
26 Inspector.
27
28 Q. Is that how it is still done? It is done in a geographical
29 basis or is it some people concentrate on, you know,
30 catering establishments and some concentrate on houses?
31 A. It depends on the way it is organised. Some have a
32 multi-disciplinary approach and you deal with everything on
33 a patch. Other authorities specialise and you will have
34 somebody specialising typically in food, hygiene and safety
35 or in housing or whatever it may be. So it depends on the
36 perceived needs of the company.
37
38 Q. So they have a wide range of responsibilities?
39 A. Indeed, very much so.
40
41 Q. So, effectively, the amount of time and staff for
42 specifically monitoring catering establishments would be
43 quite small?
44 A. Yes.
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Presumably, it depends also upon -- is there
47 a Chief Environmental Health Officer for most local
48 authorities, just as a Chief Probation Officer?
49 A. Yes, my Lord.
50
51 Q. Or civil engineer and so on?
52 A. He would organise his department as he sees fit.
53
54 Q. It occurs to me that one chief Environmental Health Officer
55 might say: "Let us have a look at big chains, be they
56 supermarkets or fast-food outlets", or whatever, and
57 another might say: "We will do a specimen look at one of
58 those once a year and we will concentrate on some of these
59 small back street outlets which we think in our area may be
60 a problem", and so on?
