Environment Enforcement Services UK

Regional Market Outlook on Environment Enforcement Services 

• Tackling litter and fly tipping costs at least £78 million a year. This includes costs to the taxpayer of £53m a year through education, enforcement and clean up. Of this, local authorities spend more than £36m a year on removing litter, and a further £9m clearing fly tipping
• The indirect costs of litter amount to at least £25m a year, having an impact on crime, health, wildlife and other areas.

The typical responsibilities to be undertaken by both the council and by the contractor are set out below:

Local Authority:

• Provide authorized officer identity cards to all Enforcement Officers working to the direction of Brent
• Provide stationery and meet postage costs in respect of the service
• Arrange for Enforcement Officers to be authorized to issue FPNs on behalf of Brent
• Provide guidance as to areas to be patrolled and times of patrols
• Provide workstations for administrative officers employed by the contractor (essentially, the Council will be required to provide an administrative base for Kingdom's operatives at the Civic Centre. Such staff will attend on an ad-hoc basis, and such arrangements will be facilitated locally within the Environmental Services Department). Contractor will be required to sign a license covering any such ad hoc occupation
• Manage and administer the appeals process

Contractor:

• To issue FPNs to anyone caught committing an environmental offence
• To provide fully trained, to Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) standard, Enforcement Officers, admin support and a senior officer for supervision
• To provide uniform agreeable to local authority
• To ensure Enforcement Officers carry out enquiries to ensure accurate identity details have been obtained from offenders before issue of FPNs.
• To provide statistical information and other reports, including equality monitoring
• Cannot issue an FPN to a person under the age of 18 or those suspected of suffering mental ill health

UK – Parking Enforcement Overview

• In 2016-17 local authorities in UK received income of around £739 million from on-street parking and £599 million from off-street parking
• Their net profit on parking charges was £660 million and income from on-street parking Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) was £343 million

Parking and Environmental enforcement

• Removal of vehicles
• Provision of Parking Suspensions
• Street Care's Nuisance (Abandoned) Vehicles
• Optional call off to deliver CCTV enforcement and School Crossing Patrols

Contravention Codes

• A contravention occurs if the terms of a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) are not complied with. A penalty charge is then payable Councils use a standard system of two-digit codes to refer to parking contraventions
• The code appears on the penalty charge notice, together with a description of the contravention
• The differential level system relates to the seriousness of the contravention and the breakdown of the higher and lower penalties are as below
• A 50% discount rate will only be applied if the penalty charge notice is paid within 14 days of the date the penalty charge notice was issued

Brexit Impact

Brexit will have an impact on wages which is 80% of total cost structure.

Shortage of skilled manpower and Increased costs:

The inflow of skilled manpower from other EU countries like Poland, Czech Republic, etc. to UK might decline. Statistics show that out of 371,266 licenses issued by the Security Industry Association (SIA), 15,000 are issued to individuals who hold EU passports. This will lead to higher labour costs and increased labor shortage due to increased demand. The fear of shortage is already reflected in the rising wages.

A mandatory wage rise will impact salaries, which account for close to 80% of total cost structure, Clients need to look at price absorption clauses to shield them from any potential rise in prices especially in manned guarding contracts

Regulations:

The impact that the EU regulations had on manned guarding industry in UK will get diluted in the medium term, as there will be new regulations formulated by UK government

The possible outcomes can be extended working hours, labour unrest, insufficient training leading to lower quality of services

Companies outside UK will have to pay import taxes to serve their clients in UK after Brexit, as the EU relaxations in terms of tax exemptions will not be applicable.

Market Share:

Around 40% of UK's exports in 2015 was through services which will face sanctions and restrictions post Brexit. Buyers might opt for regional/local suppliers

Although it is early to forecast, in the next three to four years suppliers headquartered in UK will bear the brunt of Brexit as their market share is likely to decrease in other EU countries