Out shopping this afternoon and popped into Starbucks to grab a drink but mainly to feed the little one. Asked for a bowl or mug of hot water to warm the bottle of milk up and was told I could have one due to Health & Safety as I could potentially burn myself on it despite the fact that they sell mainly coffee which on the whole is, well, hot.

Apparently the Health & Safety executive had been in to tell them they aren't allow to give out bowls or mugs of hot water and any bottle warming for baby feed has to be done behind the counter but of course this presents it's own problem that the staff wn't know or check how hot the bottle gets.

I know many restaurants have this policy which is fair enough but at a place whose primary product is coffee and other hot beverages it truely is mad.

fucknuggets

I very much doubt any person from the HSE has been through the door or advised any management of Starbucks of any such thing.

There is to the best of my knowledge no legislation regards this (as there is none that makes a school ban conkers etc). This will be some overzealous idiot of a manager who has made the decision based on those swarms of solicitors & ambulance chasers that hover for the 'were there is a blame, there is a claim' culture that is nor prevalent in this country.

experienced this myself- this a protection strategy
they are not allowed to give out boiling water-but they will do it behind the counter, but then you run the risk of the staff not doing it to your exacting standards, that only a parent knows
these skills cannot be learnt overnite, you have to go through a painstaking process of trial and error.

but yes barking mad

Agree with Rez. Usually the truth with these things is some wanker manager with fuk all better to do than think up new policies

Resurrected wrote:I very much doubt any person from the HSE has been through the door or advised any management of Starbucks of any such thing.

There is to the best of my knowledge no legislation regards this (as there is none that makes a school ban conkers etc). This will be some overzealous idiot of a manager who has made the decision based on those swarms of solicitors & ambulance chasers that hover for the 'were there is a blame, there is a claim' culture that is nor prevalent in this country.

Could have been "in house" as they said they had been told the previous day and I doubt they would have been thinking on their feet that quickly to come up with such a response. This is very recent so has come from somewhere, either internal or external.

wouldnt surprise me if this was regional HSE? As the left arm dont know what the right arm is doing - you would get different information depending on who you speak to in these kind of government agencies

Give you a real example now - BSD is trying to determine the legislation for selling tribulus after 30th April - we have had 2 different responses so far! and of course the website info is about as categoric as a wet fish in rilla's pants.

Similar note - mid last year we went to a restaurant and were decline tap water on HS grounds - i couldnt understand it! But figured it was so that we buy the bottled water.

Highly illegal- test case set precedent in manchester
Some restaurant near city's ground- unbeknown to the restaurant, they actuually declined a lawyer,despite her party spending a hefty amount- so i think she set about them with vengeance and furious anger

There is another scam now of people taking charitable donations in return for tap water

Yup, any public establishment by (european) law must have the ability to serve tap water.

Alex wrote:Yup, any public establishment by (european) law must have the ability to serve tap water.

not sure about that mate - there is a number of places that will now not serve tap water......

They have to mate.

It's along the lines of basic human rights and you have to have the right to have access to fresh water. Very similar to the law where you cannot have your water disconnected from your property not matter what.

By law only licensed premises must supply tap water free. The law is not applicable to premises that do not sell alcohol.

If you're really bored you can read the Home Office guidelines here http://www.alcoholconcern.org.uk/assets ... 202010.pdf

Fair do's.

Even so, to deny tap water is pretty shoddy.

Health and safety madness indeed. All it takes is for them to get sued though, and with Starbucks being an american company I wouldn't be overly surprised if they were paranoid with all the law suits that go on there.

det - agree the famous McD court case where the chav sued them as SHE spilt the TEA SHE bought over herself.