THE public are being put at "high risk of harm" due to cuts to environmental health departments across Scotland, according to a new report.
The Tipping Point study by the Unison union which examined the impact of austerity on local authority environmental health teams warns that a "huge range of work is being left undone" including risk inspections, licensing enforcement and pest control.
It said that the cuts meant there was less preventative work being undertaken warning this results "in a failure to protect citizens from a range of injuries and health problems."
Teams were found to have to manage an ever-increasing workload with significantly reduced resources, declining staff numbers and a slump in experienced staff due to retirements, leaving many working long hours as they struggle to maintain a service that keeps the public safe.
Just over two in three of those who responded said there had been cuts or severe cuts in their service this year, while 95% said there had been cuts or severe cuts in the last five years.
Responses showed that budgets have been cut by 12% in the last year alone.
It comes a month after audit figures revealed more than half Edinburgh's food businesses were overdue an inspection or had never been rated. A report by Food Standards Scotland said there were 6,488 food firms listed in Edinburgh but 2,886 were overdue an inspection and 915 were unrated.
Tom Bell, chief executive of the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland (REHIS) said the organisation had warned about the effect of cuts on services, but now the effect had reached a "critical point" and was concerned that it had led to a slump in the number taking BSC (Hons) in environmental health.
"We are now at the stage where there are a very small number of individuals coming through to fill an increasing number of vacancies. So it has been very very poor management by local authorities, in that they haven't foreseen this situation, and if they have, they have decided that the work of the environmental health officers has not been sufficiently important to justify really investing in the future and ensuring training places are available."
Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of microbiology at the University of Aberdeen, said the public were being put at increased risk by the cuts.
"There are lots of ways that environmental health departments cope, none of which improve public safety," he said. "Watch this space, let's hope there are not going to be any big food poisoning outbreaks.
"I have personally been involved in inspecting problems where the lack of the experience of staff was the big problem, rather than not having enough. But if you haven't got enough and you don't have the experienced staff, you just compound the problem.
"The public should be taking its part in putting pressure on the government and local authorities to give the message that there have been enough cuts and let's try and restore things."
The report based on a survey undertaken in June revealed that teams are now reacting to complaints rather than focusing on working to prevent things going wrong, with some areas of work completely cut back on, increasing the risk of accidents, food poisoning, contaminated land and vermin infestation.
It found that three in four stated that morale in their teams was low and only 8% expected this to get better in the next few years.
Fewer than one in five (18%) believe their teams have the resources to deliver an adequate service to the public while two-thirds say they are working late and skipping breaks and lunch to try to get more work done.
The report also highlighted a looming skills gap as almost half of respondents to the survey, carried out in June 2018, are aged between 46 and 55 - with another fifth due to retire over the next ten years.
It called for an end to austerity and for investment in public services.
It says: "Austerity is deeply impacting on the ability of public services to meet the needs of our citizens. This report lays out impact of cuts to environmental health team budgets leaving staff overworked, underpaid and stressed.
"This means that citizens and the wider environment are at a high risk of harm. There is a better way to do this. We need to end austerity, invest in public services focusing on service like environmental heath which prevent harm. Spending in this way will save money to a range of other public services in both the short and longer term."
Mark Ferguson, chairman of Unison Scotland's local government committee, said: "Our members can see departments depleted, with the loss of experienced staff, fewer proactive inspections and services being drastically cut.
"Not only does this put people in danger it also pushes costs onto other public bodies - which costs more money than investing in a high quality environmental health service."
A Convention Of Scottish Local Authorities Cosla) spokesman said: "As our #essentialservices campaign makes abundantly clear, we need a fair settlement from December's Budget to continue to provide the essential services our communities rely on "As we see from things like this, it is clear that the impact of past local government settlements are having a biting impact."
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Despite continued UK Government real terms cuts to Scotland’s resource budget, we have treated local government very fairly.
“In 2018-19, councils will receive funding through the local government finance settlement of £10.7 billion. This will provide a real terms boost in both revenue and capital funding for public services.
“Local authorities are responsible for managing their own budgets and priorities, including environmental health."
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