The Communities and Public Protection Scrutiny Committee of Waltham Forest Council is scheduled to meet on Wednesday 17 June 2026. The meeting's agenda includes an overview of council services relevant to the committee, and a discussion on the committee's future work programme.

Introduction to Services

The committee is scheduled to receive an overview of services relevant to its remit, as detailed in the Introduction to Services report. This report is intended to provide an outline of service priorities, major challenges or risks, recent or forthcoming national policy changes, and signposting to current operational policies and documents. The Neighbourhoods and Environment Directorate is responsible for this report, with Daniel Lawson, Corporate Director of Community Safety and Public Protection, listed as the contact. The report aims to help the committee formulate key areas of interest for its work programme for the upcoming municipal year.

The Introduction to Services report covers several key areas:

• Regulatory Services: This includes the Private Sector Housing & Licensing Team, responsible for licensing schemes, monitoring empty properties, and taking enforcement action. It also covers the Food & Safety team, which safeguards public health through food safety and hygiene, and addresses workplace health and safety. The Premises Licensing Service regulates activities requiring statutory controls, while the Trading Standards Service protects residents and ensures fair trading through legislation on product safety, pricing, and business practices. The Street Trading and Markets service licenses and regulates traders and manages the borough's markets.
• Public Protection: This encompasses the Food & Safety team, Premises Licensing Service, Trading Standards Service, and Street Trading and Markets service, as detailed above.
• CCTV: The report outlines the role of CCTV as a core component of community safety, prevention, and incident response, delivered through a 24/7 Operations Centre.
• Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB): The ASB Service provides a borough-wide, prevention-led response to anti-social behaviour, focusing on multi-agency problem-solving.
• Emergency Planning & Business Continuity: This service ensures the council is prepared to respond to, recover from, and mitigate the impacts of major incidents or emergencies, coordinating borough preparedness and multi-agency planning.
• Community Safety: This service fulfils statutory responsibilities, including the Serious Violence Duty, and oversees the Community Safety Partnership.

The report also highlights priority areas of work for these services, including implementing the Renters Rights Act, developing an enforcement policy, preparing for new legislative frameworks such as the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026, reviewing CCTV delivery models, strengthening partnership-led problem-solving for ASB, implementing new crisis response arrangements, and embedding the integrated gangs team. Challenges and risks identified include rising demand, complexity, capacity pressures, fragmented data systems, and the need for workforce resilience. The report also contextualises these services within national policy changes, such as the Crime and Policing Act 2026, the Renters' Rights Act, and the UK Resilience Framework.

The Scrutiny Report

The committee is also scheduled to discuss The Scrutiny Report, which focuses on the committee's forward planning for the 2026/27 municipal year. This report, prepared by Rosie Whillock, Acting Scrutiny Officer, invites the committee to review suggested items for the forward plan and make additional suggestions. The forward plan is a working document that outlines the committee's work programme, factoring in statutory reports, major decisions, and policy areas of interest.

The report includes an Action Tracker, which details actions required of officers from previous meetings and their progress, and a Recommendations Tracker, which captures conclusions on how services should change or improve. The committee will be asked to review and approve these trackers.

The report also notes that there are no key decisions currently falling under the remit of this committee. The committee will be invited to discuss suggested items for the 2026-27 Scrutiny Committee Forward Plan, which is drafted by the Committee Chair and Vice-Chair, with support from officers and the Scrutiny team. The remit of the committee includes community safety, crime and disorder, community cohesion, anti-social behaviour, violence against women and girls, environmental health and trading standards, enforcement, and property licensing.

Potential items for the forward plan that have been discussed include the Community Safety Partnership Annual Report, an item on tackling ASB, a report on the work of Waltham Forest's Trading Standards Service (WFTS), and knife crime. The committee will also consider items such as 'Community Cohesion and Interfaith' and 'Electric Bikes and Mopeds (regulation and safety)' for future meetings.