A blog about the work of Trading Standards in the UK
We regularly receive complaints from members of the public that a shop is illegally splitting a multipack and selling the items separately. It is not illegal to split multipacks per se but the product must be labelled and priced correctly. Continue reading Splitting multipacks and selling items separately
This post was originally posted in August 2013. The requirement to give two days notice is now in force. As I expected it means a lot of extra paperwork and a reduction in inspections. ———– Some coverage in the media Continue reading Trading Standards inspections – giving two days notice
What happened? Birmingham Trading Standards prosecuted Tesco for using misleading price practices. Tesco were fined £300,000. Strawberries had been on sale for 1 week for £3.99 then another 1 week for £2.99 and then 14 weeks for £1.99 and labelled Continue reading Birmingham City Council v Tesco (2013)
Trading Standards are often judged by the public on the enforcement action we take – specifically criminal prosecutions. This is probably because it is one of the few things that Trading Standards do that regularly makes it into the news. Continue reading The enforcement of the law
In my previous post I mentioned that in order to make a complaint (or request advice) you will probably have to contact the Citizens Advice Consumer Service. The details of your complaint will then be passed to your local Trading Continue reading Making a complaint – properly
If you are trying to contact Trading Standards you will most likely have to contact the Citizens Advice Consumer Service who will act as the first point of contact. This often confuses members of the public who think of Citizens Continue reading Citizens Advice Consumer Service
An important question when trying to justify your existence…. I am going to look at it from the perspective of why we are important to the Council. Councils are responsible for providing a wide variety of services which benefit their Continue reading Why are Trading Standards important?
In my last post I highlighted the areas of work Trading Standards are involved in but in this post I am going to discuss what the purpose of a Trading Standards department is. This is an important issue for two Continue reading What is the purpose of a Trading Standards Department?
Every Trading Standards department will be set up slightly differently depending on how the local authority (council) has decided to set it up – for example some are merged with Environmental Health or Planning departments. Below I have listed the Continue reading What do Trading Standards Do?
Some of the issues that Trading Standards deal with have been occurring for hundreds of years – for example short weights (buying something by the weight but not being given enough) or food adulteration (getting poorer quality food than what Continue reading A brief history of Trading Standards