Agenda item
Special Treatments Fees - The London Local Authorities Act 1991
Minutes:
Mr David Tolley, Head of Trading Standards and Environmental Health, stated the report was seeking to increase fees following a review of Licence fees for Massage and Special Treatment Licences, which can be set locally under the London Local Authorities Act 1991.
Mr Tolley explained the rationale behind the proposed licence fee increase and said the fee increases were set at values that would enable the Council to recover the administrative and enforcement costs associated with the relevant licences. He explained that where a business operated a selection of beauty treatments and intense pulse light laser treatments, only the higher fee of the two would be payable.
It was noted the CPI of 2.4% had been added to the licence fee, which would result in an increase from £338 to £346 for Special Treatment Licences and an increase from £544 to £557 for Intense Pulse Light laser treatment licences.
In response to questions from Members the following was noted:
· Other fees relating to Health and Safety, Food Hygiene and Environmental Health are determined by Cabinet however the fee increase for MST is delegated to this Committee as per the terms of reference.
· The amount of money raised from fees equates to a FTE post in the Health and Safety team.
· The 2.4% increase is parallel to the increase in other boroughs, with who the service benchmarks itself.
· In response to if the increase could be doubled to 4.8%, Mr Tolley confirmed there was nothing to stop the Committee raising it to the said percentage increase. However Members ought to bear in mind the service cannot make a profit from the fees and that any fee increase must be proportionate and reasonable. Mr Tolley referred Members to point 3.1 of the report and stated the Council would be at risk of being taken to judicial review, if challenged.
· Some Members stated that an increase of 4.8% could be justified due to the number of MST applications the Licensing Committee had dealt with recently. They argued resources were needed to investigate the licence holders who are in breach of their licence conditions.
· Mr Tolley reminded Members that the applications they had dealt with were the extreme cases, where services of a sexual nature had been offered and therefore the Committee was asked to revoke licences. However the vast majority of licence holders, who operate within the law, would also be affected by such an increase in fees, places such as nail bars and hairdressers.
· Some Members stated they did not agree with a 4.8% increase as additional information would be required to justify such an increase which could disproportionately affect small businesses.
· Mr Tolley confirmed businesses are required to annually renew their MST licences as per paragraph 3.4 of the report.
· Mr Tolley confirmed a cost exercise had been undertaken to determine the recommended 2.4% increase in fees.
· In response to if more could be done to improve the process of obtaining a MST licence, so Licence Holders were not slipping through the net, Mr Tolley assured Members that the process was watertight and that the recent spate of revocations were due to the team working on intelligence received and taking positive action.
o ACTION: The Chair suggested that future reports should include tabular information on how the Borough compares with other boroughs and if the proposed increase is equivalent to other comparative boroughs.
· In response to if the decision ought to be delayed until the next meeting in March 2019, Mr Tolley stated that this would delay the implementation for the new fees to come into effect by the 1st April 2019. He stated businesses need to be informed of the increase prior to them coming into effect.
At this stage, Members decided to vote on the proposal put forward by Councillor Tarik Khan and seconded by Councillor Faroque Ahmed that the increase of MST fees should be by 4.8% rather than 2.4%.
RESOLVED
Accordingly, the Committee made a majority decision to:
1. AGREE an increase for Massage and Special Treatment Licences, including Intense Pulse Light laser treatment by 4.8% and that future reports to the Committee should provide further comparative data on how the proposed increase in fees is comparable with other benchmarking Authorities.
2. That where a business operates a selection of beauty treatments and Intense Pulse Light laser treatment, that only the higher fee is payable.
3. Agree that all fees are non-refundable once an application has been made, due to the commencement of processing the licence.
4. Resolve that these fees will commence on 1st April 2019 and will apply to all licence applications for all licences referred to above.
Supporting documents: