Environmental health
 services hit by austerity

Austerity has cut environmental health services to the bone, according to a new report from the public services union UNISON. 


Environmental health budgets per head of population more than halved over the past decade, falling by 53% between 2009 and 2018. Enforcement visits fell by nearly half (49%), while programmed, or pre-announced, visits fell by 41% over the same period, UNISON said.


The new research is based on responses to Freedom of Information requests from around half (197 out of 374) of local authorities in England and Wales and survey responses from around 760 UNISON members working in environmental health. 


Environmental health officers enforce health and safety standards in workplaces including restaurants, shops and care homes, and deal with a range of issues, such as pest control, food safety and air pollution.


UNISON says officers are seeing more non-compliance with the law and new businesses left without preventative guidance. It reports that “preventative work is greatly reduced” and that environmental health departments are having to concentrate on minimising a problem after it happens.


www.unison.org.uk/content/uploads/2019/04/Damage-environmental-health.pdf