Regional Compliance Policy & Guidelines

HCCREMS, with the assistance of staff from a number of councils, developed a template Regional Compliance Policy following requests from the Regional Compliance Network.

The template policy provides a framework which encourages voluntary compliance, provides guidance to councils on best practice decision making principles, assists councils to minimise risks to the environment and to inform the community about how councils manage their environmental compliance responsibilities.

The HCCREMS Directors Forum (May 2009) adopted the draft policy in principal, and requested HCCREMS take the policy to council staff for consultation.  HCCREMS and council staff are currently developing documentation and guidelines which support the template policy.

The policy was designed to be tailored to each council’s regulatory environment, and is intended to be adopted as an ‘umbrella’ document to form the framework under which councils manage issues of compliance.  The policy is applicable to all regulatory issues including, but not limited to, development and building control, pollution, vegetation clearing, environmental health, public health and safety, noxious weeds, water and sewer, septics, parking and control over animals.  The template policy specifically provides for the identification of standard operating procedures, guidelines and other documents used by councils to actively manage these areas of regulation and compliance, meaning the policy would need limited updating, and the guidelines and other supporting documents would form the basis of the active implementation of the policy.

The template policy specifically identifies the following issues:

• Record keeping
• Quality conditions and approvals
• Education and engagement
• Incentives
• Monitoring
• Reports of non-compliance
• Investigations
• Enforcement
• Performance and reporting

The first guideline developed provides guidance on Evidence Gathering and Investigative Interviewing.  The guideline provides advice on how to plan an investigation, collect evidence and conduct interviews.  The guideline was developed from materials included in HCCREMS training courses and with the assistance of Molino Stewart and Kells the Lawyers and reviewed by a number of council officers prior to its release in the region.

The development of other guideline documents will occur in conjunction with the development of materials for the Certificate IV Government (Investigations) training commencing in October 2010.  Guidelines are also expected to be developed for record keeping, Review of Environmental Factors (REF) development, enforcement and prosecution.  An incident prioritisation system will also be developed with the assistance of council officers.
 

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