Practical guidance for local authority enforcement officers series - Julie Barratt

Two recent publications will be of interest to Environmental Health Officers as well as other local authority enforcement officers.

The books, ‘Investigation and Prosecution: practical guidance for local authority enforcement officers’ and ‘Enforcement Notices: practical guidance for local authority enforcement officers’ are written by Julie Barratt,  who is both a Barrister who practised local government law specialising in environmental health and planning, and an Environmental Health Officer.

Both books take the same form, being broken into single issue chapters with identified learning point at the end of the chapter. The volume on investigation and prosecution starts with the technicalities of the authorisation of officers and goes through to the wash up at the end of the case. It covers the investigation, the collection of evidence, interviewing witnesses, conducting Interviews under Caution, enforcement protocols, case reviews, giving evidence in court and discusses common mistakes and how not to make them. The companion volume on enforcement notices looks at the derivation of enforcement notices, their different types and purposes and the legalities and technicalities around serving them. It discusses commonly made errors and their avoidance and offers practical advice and guidance that will be invaluable to enforcement officers. It also considers the legalities, technicalities and practicalities of serving Fixed Penalties and offers practical and pragmatic advice to those who may be required to do so.

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The author makes it clear that the books are not text books or books of authority. They are practical guidance, based on the errors that she identified when in practise as being commonly made by enforcement officers. The advice they contain is pragmatic, reflecting her own experience as an enforcement officer and recognising the very real constraints under which local government officers’ work.

Both books will be valuable to officers at every stage of their career, whether students starting out on a career that encompasses enforcement and potential litigation or experienced officers who may have cause to consider what they are doing and why they are doing it in the way that they are. At £10 each they represent extremely good value for money, and will more than repay the investment.

‘Investigation and Prosecution: practical guidance for local authority officers’ by Julie Barratt (ed. Chris Lewis) 2^nd  edition 2019  ISBN 978-1-9164127-0-5

‘Enforcement Notices: practical guidance for local authority enforcement officers’ by Julie Barratt (ed. Chris Lewis) ISBN 978-1-910676-05-9

Both books available via the button below.