A warning has been delivered that staff cuts have left Angus food safety and environmental protection officers ill-prepared to deal with a major incident such as a disease outbreak or fatality.
Budget pressures have been blamed for a situation which has led to the council being unable to carry out statutory duties in some service areas. Officials say a major event could lead to a call for help from neighbouring authorities.
The situation has been highlighted in an internal audit report to scrutiny and audit committee councillors. Service leader Cathie Wylie details the findings of the audit for a service with wide-ranging responsibility in areas including food hygiene and safety, animal welfare, pollution control, migrant worker sites and workplace health and safety.
The report’s conclusions say only limited assurance could be given over the ability of the service to meet its objectives.
Ms Wylie said: “This assessment should not be seen as a criticism of the staff currently carrying out the duties covered by this audit, rather it reflects the impact which historic and ongoing budget cuts and the subsequent lack of staffing resource is having on the service.
“There is a significant risk that the service as a whole will be unable to fulfil its statutory duties; our audit has identified that some of those duties are already not being met.”
Her report adds: “A significant reduction in staff resource over the last five years has, inevitably, placed an increased burden on remaining staff. The current workload is predicted to increase substantially over the coming two years as a result of new or existing legislative requirements.
“The effect of this loss on a small team has been exacerbated by the operational officers taking additional leave through the bought leave scheme.
“There are concerns regarding lack of resilience in the food and safety team in the event of a major incident such as a communicable disease outbreak or a fatal accident.
“Responses to such incidents involve several members of the team, and can last for an extended period of time.
“A resource sharing agreement is currently in place between the environmental health services at Angus, Perth and Kinross, and Dundee City Councils and it may therefore be possible during such an event to source additional staff resource from one of those partner authorities as part of this mutual aid agreement.”
The official concluded: “All of the issues highlighted increase the risk of a major incident or service failure in this area.
“It is, however, considered that these risks are being properly managed at present. “
