Further to my post about cutbacks at Hampshire County Council Trading Standards, I have another – this time from the London Borough of Enfield.
The current TS department has 4 members of staff. This is already a ridiculously low number given the amount of work Trading Standards are supposed to do (see here).
From September the plan was that the department would only have 1 member of staff who would be a manager. The person who was to remain has resigned. Therefore, from September 2023 the department will have no staff.
One person clearly cannot run or provide a TS service. It probably takes more than 1 person just to do the admin stuff.
I have since found out that they will also employ someone part time just to deal with housing matters – this will be ‘self-funding’ – not sure how exactly. I suspect their job will be to hand out fines to people not complying with landlord legislation.
I also know that the TS department couldn’t take forward cases to court anyway as they have a two-year backlog of cases (I believe generally within the legal dept, not just TS).
My message to dodgy businesses is simple – go and operate in Enfield – because you will be able to operate with impunity.
It would take them years to recover back to just 4 staff – even if they invested unlimited money – because it is really hard to recruit experienced TS staff these days.
I asked Enfield Council for a response via the media department by they did not provide one.
It is worth bearing in mind this will also affect residents from all of the areas around Enfield because no one will be tracking all the dodgy businesses operating from that area.
Isn’t it time for the Government to step in?
A Freedom of Information request was sent to Enfield Council – the response is below:
1 – Please can you confirm if the Trading Standards department of the Council will be reduced to 1 staff member in September 2023.
The service will have a staff allocation of a Principal Fair Trading/Trading Standards Officer and a self- funded 0.5 FTE within Private Sector Housing Service for one year.
2 – Please provide all information held relating to how that decision was made.
The savings were identified as part of the of the Councils Medium Term Financial Plan – 2023/24 to 2027/28 (MTFP) as detailed in the October 2022 Cabinet Report https://governance.enfield.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=107&MId=14224&Ver=4
Any other documents regarding the consultation a subject to a section 44(1) (a) Freedom of Information Act 2000 exemption in the information is prohibited by another enactment.
Local Government Act 1972 Schedule 12A (Access to Information: Exempt Information) – Information relating to any (contemplated and otherwise) consultations or negotiations, in connection with any labour relations matter arising between the authority and employees of, or office holders under, the authority.
3- How many people carried out Trading Standards work for Enfield in 2010? By this mean I mean frontline officers/managers but not admin staff
11 FTE.
4 – How many prosecutions have Enfield Trading Standards had since 1 January 2015. Please provide data by year.
2015 – 10
2016 – 20
2017 – 6
2018 – 15
2019 – 17
2020 – 2
2021 -5
2022 – 1
2023 – 1
5 – how many fines/monetary penalties have Enfield Trading Standards issued since 1 January 2015. Please provide data by year.
FPNs issued:
2015-0
2016-0
2017 – 1
2018 – 3
2019 – 0
2020 -12
2021- 49
2022 – 6
2023 – 4
If you know of any other TS in a similar situation, please post in the comments.