Are cafés and restaurants obliged by law to provide toilets for their customers?
The Food Safety Act 1990 leaves the enforcement of food safety to local authorities to whom any concerns about local restaurants should be addressed. Restaurants should comply with BS 6465 Part 1 1994, which requires a minimum provision of toilets depending on the number of customers. Licensing requirements may impose further conditions.
For staff, regulations on workplace health, safety and welfare also require adequate toilets and from October 1 the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 will oblige restaurants to make toilets reasonably accessible to disabled people. Recommendations for adapting cafés to meet these requirements (installation of grab-rails etc) can be found on the website of the Disability Rights Commission (www.drc-gb.org).
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Several private houses use a single channel sewer system crossing other property (including mine) to join a mains public sewer. The local authority and Thames Water say that they are not responsible for its upkeep. On occasions I have had to pay to clean up my backyard after flooding by sewage coming through a manhole. House bricks from a crumbling manhole chamber upstream appear to be the problem. Is there a duty on the local authority or water company to deal with this despite the channel not being adopted?
The council is really only responsible for drainage on council estates. The water company is responsible for public sewers, that is, those built before 1937 or adopted since then. In other cases, including yours, sewers are private, which means that their maintenance is the responsibility of the property owners they serve. Each owner will be solely responsible for the initial pipe leaving his house and jointly responsible, with the other users, for any common sewage pipe. If there are six houses using a pipe they will each contribute a sixth of the expense. Failure to maintain pipes causing blocked drainage would be a nuisance, the responsible owners being liable to pay damages for your inconvenience and expense and you could take action to recover this by means of a small claim in the county court.
However, since this is a public health issue, speak to the council’s environmental health department, which can require the necessary work by legal notice (and even do it itself). Local authority websites are usually very helpful on drainage issues. See for example: www.kingston.gov.uk/environment/drainage
_and_sewage.htm.
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After a takeover offer the registrar sidelined my shares on to a dissentient list because of my failure to sign acceptance of the offer. If the registrar gave out details of my shares is this not a breach of trust and my right to privacy?
All companies are required by law to keep a register of shareholders, which includes their names and addresses. This is not open to the public but must be open to inspection by any other member who can, for a fee, get a copy of the register (Companies Act Section 356). Thus anyone planning a takeover (inevitably an existing shareholder) can start with a target list of shareholders and their addresses. The dissentients’ list is important because , under the Companies Act, once the acceptance level reaches 90 per cent the takeover company can compulsorily buy out the dissentients at the takeover price by giving them notice to do so under section 429, and likewise members of the 10 per cent minority can require this. There are time periods for this but there is thus a balance of rights.
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When visiting Sweden recently, I asked the passport control officer at the airport to stamp my passport. He said that EU regulations prevented him from doing so. Is this true?
British citizens, as citizens of the EU, benefit from free movement between states. They thus have a right of entry into another member state on identifying themselves (by passport or ID card) at the frontier. Since they enter as of right they don’t need the approval of an official stamp. In most EU countries, the requirement to identify oneself has been abolished under the Schengen agreement. However, the UK not being a party to Schengen, we have to show our passports when visiting Schengen states although not when travelling between Schengen states. Denmark and Sweden are members of Schengen as are two non-EU states — Iceland and Norway (both members of the European Economic Area). Thus travelling from the UK to Sweden you must produce your passport but not when going from Sweden to Norway, even though you are technically leaving the EU.
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We regret that we cannot reply to individual queries. The above commentary must not be taken as legal advice; readers should consult a solicitor. Readers can e-mail queries to tde@easynet.co.uk