About the CIEH’s Annual Survey of Local Authority Noise Enforcement Activity
The CIEH has been collecting noise statistics from local authorities in one form or another for over 30 years. They are a valuable source of data on a topic of increasing prominence. For comparison purposes it is important that the figures are collected on a consistent basis, both as between authorities and over time, and these web pages have been created to help ensure that. They offer a broad range of data collection options and at the same time provide some guidance on completing the survey. The questions and answers focus on the expanded form of report against which local authorities were asked to begin collecting data from 1 April 2005.
The survey
The reporting format has been derived in discussions with representatives of all interested parties during 2003- 2005, including a period of formal consultation with all local authorities in 2003. It differs from that which has been in use in past years which required relatively little data in order to track numbers of complaints about noise received under each of five categories of source through the statutory process beginning with investigation and ending, one way or another, with their resolution. From the 2005/6 survey, however, the full dataset will be represented by three, larger matrices, the first collating noise type (alarms, barking dogs etc) against noise sources (factory, retail premises etc), the second outcomes (notice served, seizure etc) against noise sources and the third outcomes against noise types.
The second matrix is essentially the same as the current requirement though with some detailed changes to accommodate some newer legislation but the capture of data on noise types is entirely new while we have sub-divided the existing categories of noise sources in the first and second matrices to provide extra detail here too. In addition, the first of the matrices asks for numbers not just of complaints made, as now, but of complaints resolved. Not least important, the wording has been adjusted to enable N Ireland authorities to participate fully for the first time.
Purposes of the survey
The purposes of the survey are, fundamentally, to provide time-series data on numbers of complaints by the public by source of noise, by type of noise and by the stage of their handling, i.e. from receipt to resolution. From that data, trends can be highlighted, gaps in service provision can be identified, the success of policy initiatives, both at national and local levels, can be measured and funding and other resourcing can be justified.
The data resulting will also be useful for benchmarking and for demonstrating “best value”. If, as is possible, a measure of local authorities’ management of noise is included in their Comprehensive Performance Assessments (CPA) in the future, we would expect it to be useful in that context too.
In addition, government uses data from our survey as an indicator of sustainability and its summary is published annually in the Digest of Environmental Statistics and in “Social Trends”. As the only source of similar data, it benefits the prestige of the CIEH and by extension, the whole environmental health profession.
The development since 2003 of a more comprehensive survey for which local authorities are asked to report data from this year has the support of Defra, the Devolved Administrations and the Local Government Association. It asks for no more data than any competent authority will keep for its own purposes and indeed, some already keep more. The survey’s statistical strength depends on a high rate of return and all authorities are expected to respond.
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