‘No masks’ top whistleblowers’ Covid gripes
People not wearing face masks is the biggest gripe for whistleblowers complaining about Covid breaches, a council meeting heard.
A meeting of the local Covid outbreak engagement board heard from Mark Croxford, head of Birmingham City Council’s environmental health.
Mr Croxford talked through results from the requests for assistance logged through the council’s Covid whistleblowing line.
It showed a quarter of all complaints – 541 – were related to use of face masks, while the second biggest concern – 515 complaints – were based on use of personal protective equipment (PPE).
Aside from those marked “other”, complaints were most commonly about the dining services sector – 513 – followed by hospitality – 34 – and food retail –275.
The majority of cases were still marked as open by environmental health, with the largest proportion after that marked as “compliance without enforcement”.
There have now been 2,265 complaints since February – up from 1,502 on October 1.
The report to councillors notes within the last month, one unlicensed premises was closed due to “operating in the early hours with 37 people in it”.
Three fixed penalty notices totalling £1,000 each have been issued to business operators trading after 10pm found during Operation Reliant visits by police.
A total of 126 inspections were carried out requiring steps to be taken to meet Covid legislation or guidelines.
Some 161 visits and phone calls were made giving advice and helping people to be Covid compliant.
Powers
Mr Croxford’s report stated the council has monitored and advised on 65 outbreaks but “due to good compliance with mitigating steps, [it has] not been required to use enforcement powers”.
He said: “One of the issues that is very high is around the use of face masks, and PPE can be combined into that.”
He said initially when face masks were introduced, there was around a “60/40 split” in use of face masks, which improved when Birmingham went into Tier 2.
He said that is now dropping off again “and we are also seeing complaints being very high”.
Mr Croxford said: “If you can, I really think people should be pushing forward now in trying to wear the masks as they can.
“They don’t have to be these blue medical-type ones, they can be face coverings, snoods or scarves – anything people find comfortable but stop the spittle from the mouth.”
