Licensing and regulation

Enforcement policy and notices

Our environmental health and trading standards teams use our enforcement policy to guide regulatory decisions. This helps ensure a consistent and proportionate approach across all officers.

The policy was developed in consultation with the public and the business community. All comments were considered and incorporated before the policy was approved by committee in December 2023.

Register of enforcement notices 

We are required to maintain a register of enforcement notices for the purposes of the Environment and Safety Information Act 1988 and other legislation. The register includes all notices served since December 2021 and will be updated as further notices are served. If a particular type of notice is not listed, it can be assumed that type of notice has not been served.

In line with sections 33 and 38 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, some commercial information has been withheld where relevant. Only the information on this register will be released in response to FOISA requests. Notices that are part of an ongoing investigation will not appear until enforcement action is complete, with the exception of those required to be included under the Environment and Safety Information Act 1988.

Licensing Standards Officer for alcohol

We are required to have a Licensing Standards Officer (LSO) to work with licence holders, members of the public and regulatory partners on matters relating to the sale of alcohol. The LSO is independent of the Licensing Board and the Licensing Clerk.

The LSO's functions include:

• Providing information and guidance on the operation of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 in Orkney
• Monitoring compliance by holders of premises licences and occasional licences with the conditions of their licences and other requirements of the Act
• Providing information to the Licensing Board about the conduct of personal licence holders or applicants where this is inconsistent with the licensing objectives
• Providing mediation services to help avoid or resolve disputes between licence holders and other parties about compliance matters

The LSO has powers to visit licensed premises and investigate complaints or concerns. The LSO is also consulted on licence applications under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 and is a member of the Orkney Licensing Forum.

Public registers

We maintain a number of public registers on behalf of the council. These are:

• Caravan sites
• Contaminated land
• Cooling towers and evaporative condensers
• Enforcement notices
• Houses in multiple occupation
• Private water supplies
• Relevant notices under the Environment and Safety Information Act 1988
• Scotch Whisky Regulations
• Spirit Drink Regulations