Category: Uncategorized

This year’s Annual General Meeting was held in Edinburgh on Friday 21 November and Martin Keeley was elected as the Institute’s President.

Professor Kofi Aidoo and Drew Hall were elected as the Institute’s Senior Vice-President and Junior Vice-President respectively. All will hold office for the next year. Lisa McCann joins the Council for the first time having been elected to the EHO South category. Former President Paul Bradley, Gwyneth Kerwin, Alan Morrison and Brian Lawrie were re-elected to the EHO South category. Christine Morrison was re-elected to the EHO North category and Sandy Fraser and Wendy Barrie were re-elected to the Others than EHO category. George McCracken, a member of the Council since 2009, was not re-elected and incoming President Martin Keeley thanked George for all his good work as a member of the Council.

The first meeting of the new Council takes place in Edinburgh on Saturday 6 December 2014. The membership of the new Council is listed on the website,to see the full list click on the link  ‘Members of the Council’.

Those present also voted to introduce the following subscriptions for 2015/16: Full/Associate members to £125.00 (or £99.00 if paying by direct debit); retired members £25.00; student members will continue to be exempt from paying the annual subscription.

The Autumn 2014 edition of Environmental Health Scotland, the REHIS Journal, can be accessed by clicking on the  link Journal 2014

If you wish to feature any Environmental Health or Public Health initiative, event or activity in the REHIS Journal, please contact Tom Bell at tb@

The Annual Awards Ceremony will take place on the evening of Thursday 20 November. On the morning of the following day the annual Environmental Health Update event, a free to members CPD event, will be presented. This will be followed by the Institute’s Annual General Meeting which starts at 2.00pm. All three events will be held at the Apex International Hotel, Edinburgh.

Have you made your voice heard? Now is your opportunity, take part in the consultation for Scotland’s next phase of the National Food and Drink Policy; Becoming a Good Food Nation, the consultation ends on Friday, October 17^th!

Becoming a Good Food Nation Discussion Document proposes a 2025 vision for Scotland’s food and drink future. It outlines some of the challenges we are facing relating to diet, attitudes, access, and resilience.  The discussion document acknowledges there are many great successes within food and drink industry along with examples of healthy eating community initiatives. There are a variety of approaches explored including plans for a Food Commission and local champions to drive change.

The Scottish Government is seeking your views on the proposed priorities, indicators for success, the Food Commission, and how you can drive individual and community change. The consultation will be open for responses until Friday, October 17^th, at the following link http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2014/06/1195.  

Tweet Suggestions:

Join in the discussion for Scotland to Become a Good Food Nation http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2014/06/1195. #Goodfoodnation #Scotlandfoodfuture.

Share your views on how Scotland can Become a Good Food Nation http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2014/06/1195. #Goodfoodnation #Scotlandfoodfuture.

 The Institute will be responding to the consultation.

There is ONE place left on the Advanced HACCP course which is being held in Edinburgh from the 22-24 September 2014. Don’t miss your chance as this course is only held annually. If you wish to book a place please contact Jackie McCabe, jm@ without delay.

A booking form is attached.

I am delighted to welcome a report written by Community Food and Health (Scotland), or CFHS, detailing the views of 12 trainers delivering the REHIS Elementary Cooking Skills course. CFHS provided funding to 13 groups for them to deliver the course in low-income communities. A lack of cooking and practical food skills is often cited as a major barrier to healthy eating.  To address this, REHIS, in partnership with NHS Forth Valley Nutrition and Dietetics Department and with support from Community Food and Health (Scotland) and Edinburgh Cyrenians, developed a new course called Elementary Cooking Skills. The course aims to provide participants with basic cooking skills with the aim of increasing their confidence, skills and knowledge. A copy of the CFHS report can be found by clicking on this link – Elementary Cooking Skills Course

We now have many centres throughout Scotland approved to run this course.  For more information about the REHIS Elementary Cooking Skills Course, and or other REHIS qualification, please contact me at jm@

Jackie McCabe

Director of Training

Colin Wallace, REHIS President, gave oral evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Health and Sport Committee at Holyrood during discussion on Stage 1 of the Food (Scotland) Bill. The whole report, published on 21 August 2014, is available at the following link –  Food (Scotland) Bill

The Annual Conference has given the Institute’s members, colleagues from partner organisations and government agencies and the wider Environmental Health and Public Health communities including REHIS Approved Training Centres the opportunity to meet and to discuss important and topical issues. A great deal of effort has gone into making Annual Conferences relevant and informative for delegates but delegate numbers continue to fall year on year. The Institute’s Council is keen to hear your views on how best to present its Annual Conference and invites you to complete and return the short questionnaire at the following link – REHIS Conference Survey

Thank you for your assistance.

Tom Bell

Chief Executive

Falkirk Council scooped the top awards when more than 70 of Scotland’s ‘greenest’ people attended the REHIS sponsored Scottish Green Apple Environment Awards 2014 recently. Falkirk Council scored a stunning hat-trick of success, winning Local Authorities Gold awards for two of their submissions – ‘The Helix’ and the ‘Greenspace Initiative’. On the strength of that double-whammy, they went on to win the top accolade – Green Champion of Scotland 2014.

The presentation ceremony was staged at The Scotsman Hotel, Edinburgh and the trophies were presented by Sophie Desbrow, Miss UK Green Queen. Other category Gold winners included Dundee City Council, Transport Scotland, Balfour Beatty, Richard Murphy Architects, Kier Infrastructure & Overseas,  J. Murphy & Sons, Forestry Commission Scotland, Healthcare Environmental Group, Wind & Cloud Travel, and Clyde Shopping Centre.

REHIS Senior Vice-President Martin Keeley shared the Master of Ceremonies duties, and he commented: It was a great honour to be able to recognise and reward some of Scotland’s greenest councils, companies and communities in this way. We heard some inspirational stories of how organisations have greatly improved their environmental performance, and it is gratifying to see that this is still a top priority for many of the country’s leading players. We wish them the best of success with their continued efforts.

 All of the Scottish entries now go forward with the possibility of winning an additional UK Green Apple Award, which will be presented in the Houses of Parliament, London, in November.

The Green Apple Awards are also one of the few schemes acting as an automatic feeder scheme into the Brussels-led European Business Awards for the Environment, so all winners have the chance to represent their country in that prestigious campaign.

 They will also be invited to help others to help the environment by having their winning papers published in The Green Book, the world’s only annual work of reference on environmental best practice that is distributed free of charge all over the UK and around the world through embassies, environment professionals, central and regional government, universities, reference libraries and the media.

 If they agree to help others to follow their lead, they then become Green World Ambassadors and collect additional trophies and certificates and if that were not enough – the overall top scorer also wins a free holiday for two in Aquacity, Slovakia the world’s greenest resort. All of this is organised by The Green Organisation, an international, independent, non-profit, non-political, non-activist environment group dedicated to recognising, rewarding and promoting environmental best practice around the world.

Recently Keep Scotland Beautiful has presented a case to TESCO to receive funding from the single use carrier bag charge in Scotland to support work in communities.  Having been shortlisted from hundreds to participate in a public vote and as the only Scottish charity in the final three KSB is asking friends and supporters to take a minute to vote and share this message across their networks.

Please vote for Keep Scotland Beautiful to make a difference in the places people love. 

VOTE NOW HERE: www.tescoplc.com/bagyourvote.

 For more information visit www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/bagsofopportunity.

World Environmental Health Day

26 September 2014

26 September has been declared World Environmental Health Day by the 

International Federation of Environmental Health. This year’s theme is Addressing Environmental Health Inequalities.

Full details available at http://www.ifeh.org/wehd/index.html

Training Adviser(Food Safety/Health and Safety)

I am delighted to announce that Raymond Hubbocks has been appointed to the post of Training Adviser (Food Safety/Health & Safety). Raymond, currently a member of the Institute’s Council and a Lecturer with Forth Valley College, will take up his post on 30 June and we look forward to welcoming him to the team.

Photo caption: Raymond Hubbocks with Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal in April last year

Tom Bell

Chief Executive