Agenda item

Report of the Director of Markets and Consumer Protection.

The Committee received a report of the Director of Markets and Consumer Protection providing Members with assurance that risk management procedures in place within the Department of Markets and Consumer Protection are satisfactory and that they meet the requirements of the corporate Risk Management Framework.

The Chairman requested that any actions already completed be removed from the Risk Register and that, if an action was still ongoing, the dates assigned to these be revised so that no dates were in the past.

The Chairman went on to question why there was no comment provided against Action No. MCP-3M 003b (Repaint Road Markings). The Superintendent of Smithfield Market reported that the actions for this risk are owned by the Department for the Built Environment (DBE). The Superintendent has been liaising with DBE to progress these actions. Some improvements had been made recently and it was hoped that this work would be complete by December 2016.

A Member questioned why there were no actions assigned to Risk no. MCP-SM 002 (Cooling Towers) and how officers therefore expected to lower the risk in this area. Another Member questioned why there were two separate risks assigned to the cooling towers. The Head of Business Performance, Markets and Consumer Protection, reported that the second risk related to the chemical treatment of the water within the towers.

A Member questioned why, within the Summary of Key Risks, it stated that if risk MCP-SM 002 (Cooling Towers) were to be realised it would result in prosecution, a fine and reputational damage for the City as other risks stated only that this could be the case. The Director stated that he would prefer for the summary to be amended to could in line with the other risks.

In response to further questions, the Director reported that the treatment of the water within the cooling towers and others across the City was taken very seriously and that a whole programme of work around this was in progress.

In response to a question regarding the Risk associated with the Cooling water failure and when this would next be reviewed, the Superintendent of Smithfield Market clarified that Officers were and had been reviewing this. He added that an indicative timetable on this had recently been received from City Surveyors and was now being discussed with the Smithfield Market Tenants Association (SMTA).