Business support Newsletter April 2024

Monday 8 April 2024

Smoking Shelters – are you complying with the law?

If you have a smoking shelter, you need to ensure it is not substantially enclosed.  Substantially enclosed is defined as any area with a roof and less than half of the total wall area permanently open to the outside air.

Draw a diagram of your smoking area including the size of all walls and roofs, noting the size of any openings.   If your measurements identify that your smoking area is enclosed you have a legal responsibility under the Health Act 2006 to prevent people from smoking in all of the indoor areas/substantially enclosed parts of your premises.  You must either prevent smoking within the enclosed shelter or alter the structure in order that it conforms with the legal requirements.

Further guidance can be found online.

Hold on Tight!

Here is a recent photo of a set of steps leading to a basement in a food business. 1,000 people die per year and 300,000 are injured by falls on stairs. This is often exacerbated by poor lighting – as many basement areas of food businesses are.

One third of over-3-day absence injuries in the food and drink industries, occur on stairs. (Health & Safety Executive, HSE)

Stairs should have a handrail on at least one side if they are less than 1 metre wide, or both sides if they are wider. Stairs do not need a handrail on the bottom two steps. In all the buildings handrail height should be between 900mm and 1000mm measured from the top of the handrail to the pitch line.

More information can be found in The Building Regulations 2010 Approved Document K section 1.34.

Basic Licensing Act Compliance Checklist

When the Licensing Team conduct visits, they will check your levels of compliance with respect to the following matters:

1. Is your premises licence summary on display?
2. Can you produce the full copy of the premises licence?  This is the part of the licence that contains the conditions of the licence.
3. Have you got a notice under Section 57 of the Licensing Act on display advising who has custody or control of the full copy of the premises licence?
4. If you have a personal licence, are you able to produce this?
5. If your premises licence specifies that you must have an incident book, training records or any other documents, are these kept on the premises and can you produce them?
6. Is the Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS) named on your premises licence still working at the premises on a regular basis and responsible for the day-to-day management and control of the premises?
7. Are the addresses of the premises licence holder and DPS, as shown on your premises licence, correct? If not, you need to notify us of any changes.
8. Have you got the plan of your premises as shown in Annexe 4 of your premises licence and does it accurately reflect the current layout of the premises? If not, you need to discuss this with us.  Depending on the extent of alterations that have been made, we will advise you on the type of variation that will be required.  Ideally you should apply for a variation to carry out any alterations to the layout of your premises before you make any changes to the premises layout.

More information and how to contact the Licensing Team can be found here.