Journal of Trading Standards Winter 2019

✚

Product safety

Safeguarding children from dangerous goods

✚

Doorstep crime

How analysis of crime data could help beat the rogues

✚

Compliance

The retail giant working with trading standards

✚

Grenfell Inquiry

Looking at the findings of the first report

Winter 2019 | www.journaloftradingstandards.co.uk

THE COST OF

CUTS

How trading standards is fighting underage sales to rid us of the blades that blight our streets

The Basics

Concise Guidance

Detailed Information

Need-to-know on trading law

What, where and how you sell

In-depth detailed guides

KE E P YO UR B U S I N ESS AT I TS PEA K use our free legal advice to stay on top

www.businesscompanion.info

Journal of Trading Standards WINTER 2019

Leader

Making a difference From within trading standards it can sometimes be all too easy to lose sight of the day-to-day benefits our work can bring to the lives of millions of people across the UK. At a time when trading standards services have been profoundly affected by cuts which diminish resources and stretch trading standards professionals to the limit, this is Robert Taylour particularly the case.

Chair, CTSI But as this issue of the Journal makes clear – and as demonstrated by the latest ACTSO report (p8) – trading standards has a crucial role in the life of this country and the wellbeing of its citizens.

The rise in knife-related violence on the UK’s streets over recent years obviously requires a coherent response from across the enforcement and regulatory landscape; our “Trading standards has a crucial cover story (p16) examines trading standards has role in the life of this country and how a part to play in preventing knives from getting into the the wellbeing of its citizens” hands of young people.

As CTSI’s new Head of Policy Sarah Caughey discusses on p14, the Grenfell Tower tragedy highlighted in stark terms how product safety can often be taken for granted, which can have disastrous results.

And on p26 Dr Tim Day, a trading standards officer who recently conducted research into doorstep crime in a doctoral thesis, discusses how the application of data can be brought to bear against the rogue traders whose actions blight the lives of some of society’s most vulnerable people.

It is a privilege to work in trading standards, and all of us in the field of consumer protection share a passion for safeguarding our communities, preventing consumer harm and encouraging businesses to do the right thing.

Through membership of CTSI, through training and educating the next generation of trading standards professionals, and through raising awareness of our vital work, we have an opportunity and a duty to spread that passion with a unified voice.

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

Editor-in-Chief:

Eleni Chalkidou Managing Editor:

Richard Young Designer:

Sam Millard Consultant:

Paul Thomas Evans Lead Developer:

Michael Sadler Videographer:

Panji Kaonga Writers:

Helen Nugent, Michael McCaw, Richard Young, Temoor Iqbal, Susan Tolman, Emma Rose, Alison Hollis

Article suggestions and feedback should be sent to: editor@JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

The Journal of Trading Standards magazine and website are produced on contract by Fourth Estate Creative Ltd. www.fourthestatecreative.com connect@fourthestatecreative.com Printed in the UK by Manson Group Distributed by Gold Key Media Published by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, 1 Sylvan Court, Sylvan Way, Southfields Business Park, Basildon SS15 6TH. www.tradingstandards.uk 01268 582 200 © 2019, Chartered Trading Standards Institute. All rights reserved.

Views expressed by the authors are not necessarily the views of CTSI.

| 03

Matt Allwright Matt is a journalist and presenter of the BBC’s Watchdog and Rogue Traders.

Sarah Caughey Sarah is Head of Policy at CTSI.

E D I TO R I A L B OA R D

COLUMNS

Editorial

Leon Livermore

Robert Taylour

David Riley

Chief Executive, CTSI

Chair, CTSI

After 25 years in local government, Leon joined the Chartered Trading Standards Institute as its Chief Executive in 2013.

Rob became Chair of CTSI in September 2019. He is also Chair of the Regulatory Compliance Officer Apprenticeship Scheme.

Immediate pastChair, CTSI, Programme Manager, NTS

David has more than 30 years’ experience in the profession.

Danny Ireland Danny is CTSI Operations Director.

Sara Barry

Damien Doherty

David MacKenzie

Head of Safer Communities, Lincolnshire CC

Chief Inspector for Northern Ireland Trading Standards Service

Trading Standards Manager, Highland Council

C O N T R I B U TO R S

Sara is Former Chair of the CTSI and has led Lincolnshire CC through major budget cuts.

Damien has 16 years’ experience and focuses on scams and doorstep crime.

David is a CTSI Lead Officer for e-Commerce with 27 years’ experience in the trading standards profession.

LEGAL

Alison Hollis Gough Square Chambers Alison is a barrister with Gough Square Chambers, London.

OPINION

Emma Rose Unchecked.uk

Phil Owen

Gareth Walters

Christine Heemskerk

Service Director (Prof. Standards), CTSI

Manager, Monmouthshire Trading Standards Service

Independent Consultant

Phil has experience across private, public and not-forprofit sectors with a focus on regulatory outcomes.

A CTSI Fellow since 2013, Gareth is Branch Secretary for Wales and Chair of the Welsh Animal Health Panel.

Christine is a self-employed consultant to the trading standards profession and a CTSI Lead Officer for Product Safety.

Emma is co-founder and Project Lead at campaign group Unchecked.uk.

CPPD

Tim Keohane & Steve Emmett Tim is a trading standards officer at Caerphilly CBC Trading Standards and Steve is a Chartered Trading Standards Practitioner.

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

Prof Louise M Hassan

Eleni Chalkidou

Richard Young

Professor of Consumer Psychology, Bangor Business School

Editor-in-Chief and Director of Communications, CTSI

Managing Editor and Head of Editorial at Fourth Estate Creative

Louise specialises in understanding consumer protection issues.

Eleni joined CTSI in May 2017 bringing a wealth of comms experience across business, law and publishing.

Richard has 10 years’ experience as a writer, producer and editor.

| 05

Local Authorities to benefit from practical online legislation guidance By offering legislative training to your retail business partners, you can now generate additional income.

Working in partnership with Virtual College under the joint ‘TradeSimple’ brand, CTSI has developed a suite of practical online courses which offer traders jargon free, step-by-step guidance to important legislation.

Courses currently available

As a local authority reseller, you will have the benefit of your own branded e-commerce site which can be used to promote the above courses.

This provides a simple way of generating income whilst adding value to your business partnerships.

• • • • • •

Prevention of Underage Sales Consumer Contracts – Distance Sales Consumer Rights Act 2015 Trading Fairly Storing and Selling Fireworks Safely and Legally Consumer Contracts – Off Premises Sales

Coming soon •

Alternative Dispute Resolution

For further details please visit www.tradesimple.org.uk or email productinfo@tsi.org.uk

Contents REGULARS

08 | Upfront

Our regular look at the headline news in trading standards, including the findings of the latest ACTSO report.

13 | Allwright Now

Matt takes on the rogue landlords in his regular column, with some help from new legislation that protects tenants.

COVER STORY

FEATURE

16

20

Age-restricted knife sales Helen Nugent examines efforts being made to clamp down on sales of knives and other dangerous goods to young people.

UK European Consumer Centre Despite Brexit uncertainty, the UK ECC continues to assist UK consumers in crossborder complaints, writes Susan Tolman.

FEATURE

OPINION

30

38

14 | Think Piece CTSI’s new Head of Policy Sarah Caughey takes issue with some of the findings of the first part of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.

26 | Research

Dr Tim Day, one of CTSI’s Joint Lead Officers for doorstep crime, talks about his research into rogue traders.

36 | Think Piece

Former Head of Policy Craig McClue talks Brexit, flextensions and winter elections in his final Journal column.

46 | The dark side of white teeth

Children and product safety Following a series of recent campaigns, Temoor Iqbal looks at work to safeguard children from dangerous products.

Taking on the ‘red tape challenge’ Everyday consumer protections were brought about by years of diligent work and are worth fighting for, writes Emma Rose.

INTERVIEW

FEATURE

42

56

Michael McCaw investigates efforts to confront illegal tooth whitening.

48 | CPPD Examining the lessons to be learnt from a recent food allergen case.

52 | Legal

Barrister Alison Hollis discusses the details of frudulent trading prosecutions.

58 | Last Word

This issue Eleni Chalkidou asks where would we be without... test purchasing.

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

In conversation with: Tim Gass Tesco’s Regulatory Compliance Manager discusses the benefits of seeing consumer protection from both sides of the fence.

CTSI Symposium 2020 The venue for next year has been carefully chosen and is ready to host CTSI’s best Symposium yet, writes Karin Layton.

| 07

Journal of Trading Standards WINTER 2019

Upfront 60 SECONDS

ACTSO REPORT

WHIRLPOOL REPORT HIGHLIGHTS TS CUTS A BEIS report on the safety of electrical goods in the UK which was highly critical of appliance manufacturer Whirlpool also expressed concern about funding shortages for local trading standards. The report notes that local trading standards services still struggle due to cuts.

UNDERAGE NICOTINE PRODUCT SALES RISE Test purchase operations with underage volunteers found that 40% of the 227 tested premises failed to undertake age checks and subsequently made illegal sales of nicotine-inhaling products, according to CTSI's Tobacco Control Survey report for England 2018-19.

FOOD BUSINESS COMPLIANCE IMPROVES The Food Standards Agency's (FSA) latest official statistics on food law enforcement for the year ending March 2019 indicate that the percentage of food establishments which are ‘broadly compliant’ with food hygiene law increased to 90.7% from 90.2% in the previous year.

TS PULLS ITS WEIGHT The latest report from the Association of Chief Trading Standards Officers (ACTSO) paints a powerful picture of the importance of trading standards

MAMAS & PAPAS FINED OVER CHILD CAR SEATS Following a complex three-year investigation by Milton Keynes Council Trading Standards, childcare and baby specialist brand Mamas & Papas has been fined £20,000 for distributing unsafe car seats, while the Director of its supplier has been sentenced to 12 weeks imprisonment.

08 |

FULL REPORT ONLINE To read the full Value of Trading Standards Report 2018/19, visit actso.org.uk

ACTSO's The Value of Trading Standards Report 2018/19 compiles data from 108 local authority trading standards services, revealing the positive social and economic impacts that trading standards provides.

As well as presenting many striking statistics (see Break Down, opposite), the report analyses how trading standards services work to prevent consumer detriment and harm, support the local economy in their regions, and promote health and wellbeing. It is the first time ACTSO has used a method of compiling data that demonstrates trading standards'

contribution in these areas – particularly noteworthy given that local government cutbacks have led to a 50% decline in trading standards budgets.

ACTSO Chair Trish Caldwell said: "Already it is clear that calculating this data for the first time pulls back the curtain on the fantastic work being done by trading standards services across England and Wales.

"I hope that this report demonstrates the breadth of good work that is going on and serves as a reminder of the enormous impact trading standards officers have on the lives of people across the country."

Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards WINTER 2019

BREAK DOWN

“From preventing £42m in consumer harm to seizing over £20m worth of unsafe and counterfeit goods to prosecuting more than 1,000 criminals, trading standards services are making a real difference to the communities they serve."

ACSTO's Value of Trading Standards Report 2018/19

Trish Caldwell | Chair, Association of Chief Trading Standards Officers (ACTSO)

£42.6m

The amount of consumer detriment prevented by trading standards activity in 2018/19

31,220

Visits to businesses by trading standards officers in England and Wales in 2018/19

£4.9m

Recovered from Proceeds of Crime by local trading standards services in 2018/19

1.3m

Unsafe products seized or removed from the market, worth an estimated £16.9m

“I hope the evidence in this report will help remind everyone of the absolutely vital work done by local trading standards services and of the crucial importance of continued investment to protect individuals and communities from harm.”

Steve Ruddy, Vice Chair, ACTSO

Rogues' corner Tackling rogue traders who seek to exploit consumers remains one of trading standards' priorities.

Here are a few recent examples of disreputable traders who fell foul of consumer protection law.

'Green energy' fraud A man described by a judge as “a slick and ruthless fraudster of elderly people” has been jailed for four and a half years following a prosecution brought by Warwickshire Trading Standards. Hassan Akhtar Qaumi, Director of HQ Energy Ltd, used a list containing details of people aged over 60 to target potential victims.

Fiddlers on the roof

Bath co's dirty tricks

Four fraudsters who scammed pensioners across London out of three quarters of a million pounds will spend a total of 18 years in prison following a major investigation by Brent and Harrow Trading Standards.

The men cold-called and bullied victims to pay huge sums of money for unnecessary roofing work.

The managers of a business which supplied and fitted walk-in baths to elderly and vulnerable people have admitted to fraud following a prosecution brought by Telford & Wrekin Council Trading Standards. Bosses at Walk in Showers and Baths Ltd defrauded customers who attempted to cancel their contracts.

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

Mobility boss guilty A Suffolk businessman has been prosecuted by Suffolk County Council Trading Standards for a total of 31 offences. David Waters, sole director of Anchor Mobility Ltd, was found guilty of multiple counts of misleading consumers and offences under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

Agents of misfortune London Trading Standards (LTS) has warned tenants to understand their rights or risk being ripped off by rogue letting agents. Letting agents in the capital have been fined more than £1.2m for breaking the law so far in 2018-19; either for not displaying fees and charges or for not being members of a redress scheme.

| 09

Journal of Trading Standards WINTER 2019

Upfront

VOICES FROM THE FRONT LINE

Alexandra Connell JOINT LEAD OFFICER FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING

“It’s about putting in place different opportunities that encourage young people and build the profession up”

10 |

What made you want to join trading standards in the first place?

I’m quite a curious person – I’ve always wanted to know what’s going on inside that factory! I was questioning from an early age and so I think it was quite natural that I decided to do something in the area of regulation. I did think about joining the police, but my mum wasn’t too keen on that idea as she thought it was quite a dangerous profession, so whilst I was at university I joined the TA instead! It’s great being in trading standards, because you get to see behind the scenes of everything and see how it’s all done; it’s a bit like having an ‘access all areas pass’.

What have been the big changes in education and training over the past few years?

I was previously on the CTSI Council for quite a few years during which I became part of the Qualifications Award Board (QAB).

Following a review by Council of the Professional Competency Framework, the QAB were tasked with formulating a new qualification, which we have now done.

It’s taken a lot of work from quite a few people, but it has been very rewarding. I believe we have come up with a great qualification that will be good for the profession. The qualification went live in the summer and the first set

of examinations has been taking place over the past few weeks.

We’ve moved away from the old modular system that we had, and instead have aimed for a more specific, focused approach.

Running alongside the qualification, we also need to recognise the difference between being qualified and being competent. The two things are not necessarily the same – the results of the Workforce Survey show us that many in the profession are in the 50-plus age group, and whilst I don’t wish to offend anyone, depending on when those officers qualified and what role they are now in, they may no longer be competent in all the areas they need to be. Trading Standards legislation has seen many changes over the years, and will continue to change – we just need to look at Brexit to see that - so we need to make sure that operational officers are kept up-to-date and competent in what they need to know. So for example, we’re just beginning to work on a competency specific to the area of animal health.

Is there an emphasis on encouraging more young people to take up the profession?

Absolutely – this all ties in very much with the Workforce Survey.

It shows that the profession has been decimated really by cuts over the past few years. But instead of saying ‘woe is me’, we

Three of CTSI’s new Lead Officers discuss their priorities, their passions and the challenges they face

have to look at where we are and work out what we’re going to do about it. Part of this is finding out how we can get new blood into our profession and make it more appealing to young people.

Part of the new qualification has taken on board how we can work with apprenticeships – there’s been a lot of work looking at the Regulatory Compliance Officer (RCO) role in England and Wales, and a similar apprenticeship scheme in Scotland. The RCO scheme has already been aligned with our qualification and the QAB will shortly be carrying out the same process for the Scottish scheme. It’s about putting in place different opportunities that encourage young people and build the profession up. A big part of my role is getting that message out.

I think it’s also important that there’s a person who people in the profession can go to – from students to practitioners to Lead Officers – who they can ask about any concerns over training opportunities in their particular area. The Education and Training Lead Officer role sort of feeds into every other area in that respect.

We need to know what challenges people are coming up against so that we can address them.

I’d really encourage anyone who has ideas or concerns to get in touch. I can’t promise miracles but nothing happens if you don’t at least try.

Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards WINTER 2019

Iain Hoey JOINT LEAD OFFICER FOR LEGAL METROLOGY

What are your priorities in the Lead Officer role?

I want to support members – there are four Lead Officers for legal metrology, and it’s important that CTSI members know they can contact us for support and advice as they need it.

Katherine Hart JOINT LEAD OFFICER FOR DOORSTEP CRIME What are your priorities in the Lead Officer role?

I would like to see doorstep crime being recognised as a priority. It is an issue that is often unreported and under-recorded, but it can affect anyone at any time.

Unfortunately it is often the most vulnerable who are most at risk.

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

Has technology had a big impact on approaches to metrology?

There’s still no substitute to actually going out to premises and doing inspections on the ground. For example when you do testing of petrol pumps, part of that is making sure they’re sealed up properly on the inside; there’s no way of doing that remotely, you have to go and have a look.

So there’s no substitute for hands-on work in legal metrology – it’s a very practical subject.

tion of law and science just really appealed to me.

The thing that attracted me to trading standards in general – and this might sound almost twee – was just to help people. I was working in retail and I realised that I wasn’t really doing anything to benefit society and I got interested in the work of trading standards, so I applied for a position and did my training.

But it really was that I just wanted to help people.

What was it that drew you towards metrology in the first place?

When I first started studying it, I just knew it was the thing for me.

I’ve got quite a practical background – I did building surveying at university – and the combina-

Metrology is central to trading standards’ origins – do you think it still is recognised as an important part of trading standards work, or has it been pushed into the background?

It has been pushed into the background, definitely. The local authorities in the UK remain

I would like to see a consistent approach. We know there are dwindling resources but a better joined-up method of working would benefit all of our profession and our partners.

Doorstep crime does not stop at any borders.

in a mattress. Criminals are hiding behind technology. We now have evidence to link doorstep crime with human trafficking, modern slavery, drugs and weapons. In many situations it is serious and organised criminals that will travel all over the UK.

Has much changed over the past 10 years or so in terms of how doorstep crime and scams are perpetrated?

Financial exploitation is still an issue as it was 10 years ago – however criminals are using much more sophisticated methods to target and groom their victims. Vast amounts of money, property and other assets are taken. It goes much further than the stash of money hidden

And has this changed how the problem is being tackled by trading standards?

Absolutely, we have much more of a challenge than we ever did before. Resources are dwindling, prosecution cases failing. However, trading standards professionals are fantastic about their passion. We are seeing amazing results from preventative approaches as well as enforcement.

We all realise that we cannot

Weights & Measures authorities – and they still have a duty to perform legal metrology work.

But there’s been such a decline in numbers of personnel, and resources available for trading standards, that everyone’s getting pulled in different directions and I think that trading standards officers can end up losing focus when they’re being forced to turn their hands to other things.

They can lose confidence as well in doing legal metrology work and for me, it’s all about helping people to maintain competence as well as confidence in doing the work.

In my local authority the impact of cuts hasn’t been too severe but I know talking to colleagues around the country things are very difficult at the moment – there’s no denying that.

tackle this alone, therefore the links between police and other enforcement agencies have strengthened, and also our links with the social care providers. We are trying to tackle this holistically from the cause to the effect.

What made you want to join trading standards in the first place?

I blame Wrexham Trading Standards! They came into my 6th form college when I was sitting ALevels and I saw a profession that was so varied from the helping of people to the thrill of an investigation. It was something that really appealed to me, so I did a degree at Manchester Metropolitan University and somehow ended up in Scotland and stayed here.

| 11

Process CyanProcess CyanProcess MagentaProcess MagentaProcess YellowProcess YellowProcess Black

Proud To Sponsor

The Annual CTSI Symposium & Awards Dinner 2020

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

Southport Convention Centre 15 June - 17 June 2020

tel: 01274 852200 e m ai l : sales@statusinternationaluk.co.uk • web : www.statusinternationaluk.co.uk Pennine House, Mortimer Street, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, BD19 5AR

Matt Allwright

Matt Allwright Matt is a journalist and presenter of the BBC’s Watchdog and Rogue Traders.

Letting away with it

Unscrupulous agents and landlords have plagued the housing market for years – but the introduction of new legislation could lead to a change for the better

It’s an area where a TSO could make a massive difference, not just to a tenant’s finances but to their home

Winter 2019

Let me take you back four or five years to a tiny balcony somewhere in North West London. I’m filming Rogue Traders on this balcony with a letting agent who is threatening to jump to get away from our cameras.

He is also claiming to have a heart condition which could kill him at any moment, and emphasising that I will be responsible for his demise, whether caused by coronary or concrete. I maintain that he is at least partially responsible because we’ve filmed him renting this flat out to at least two different tenants that we know of, harvesting their fees and deposits, without ever handing over keys. It’s a good business – no overheads, no tenancy to manage, just a stream of hard cash until he flip-flops and phoenixes to continue somewhere else under a different name. Perhaps that’s why in the unlikely event that he did choose to jump, he’d land right next to his late-plate fully loaded Mercedes-Benz.

This story made it clear to me that the growing private rental market in the UK was, and still is, in meltdown.

People are now often in such a frenzy to find somewhere to live that they’ll take risks and hand over big money without keys or guarantees, leaving them as sitting ducks.

It’s why I started making my programme The Housing Enforcers, and lo and behold, once we scratched the surface we found manifold stories of landlords and agents ready to take the money without the duty of care, resulting in cramped and dangerous hellholes housing families and individuals who ended up massively out of pocket. One thing that surprised me was that the enforcement was as gappy as Alan Carr’s grin. The EHOs

I worked with could take action if the house was unsafe, but when it came to protecting tenants’ consumer rights, for a transaction which can strip you of your savings and then take half your wage packet or more, the territory was lonesome and unloved.

Surely a job for trading standards? Well, you might think so. It’s an area where a TSO could make a massive difference, not just to a tenant’s finances but to their home – the platform for all good things – and yet tenants are more likely to go to a charity like Shelter than to their authority if they’ve been stung. Hopefully that’s about to change.

A National Trading Standards Estate and Lettings Agency team now exists, tasked with making sure TSOs across the country have the knowledge to help tenants in a fix.

There’s also new legislation for them to use – the Tenant Fees Act introduced this June means that my chap on the balcony should be out of business, as the fees on which his scam relied have been scrapped.

Part of the challenge now is to get tenants to understand their rights and know who’s there to protect them. It might also help to get County Council TSOs and District Council Private Rented Sector teams to sit next to each other. I’m guessing they could have a few things to discuss…. n

| 13

Think Piece

A matter of routine?

Following the publication of the first part of the Inquiry into the Grenfell Tower tragedy, Sarah Caughey rejects the notion that an electrical fire which claimed 72 lives could be described as an ‘everyday occurrence’

Sarah Caughey Sarah is Head of Policy at CTSI

When it comes to product safety, commonplace household electrical goods should not and must not pose commonplace risks to the health and lives of consumers

14 |

Those of you who attended the CTSI Symposium in Brighton this year will have watched the hard-hitting video on regulatory crises which featured in the plenary sessions. (If not, you can view it at journaloftradingstandards.co.uk).

The stark scenes and devastating stories featured are hard to forget. They are an unfortunate reminder of the importance of product safety regulation and enforcement, and the role of the trading standards profession.

How can we ensure that lessons are learned and actions are taken to prevent future reoccurrences?

I am among the many consumers in the UK who had one of the 5.3 million defective Whirlpool tumble dryers in their home. Perhaps you were too. I watched over its workings with a wary eye and was fastidious about fluff removal until it was replaced. While my dryer did not cause any issues, other people were not so fortunate. It is estimated that there could still be up to 800,000 unmodified machines in homes across the country.

In The Grenfell Tower Inquiry: Phase 1 Report, chairman, The Rt Hon Sir Martin Moore-Bick, concludes that “… the evidence, viewed as a whole, leaves me in no doubt that the fire originated in the large fridge-freezer”. The Inquiry Chair continues: “A fire originating in an

electrical domestic appliance is not an uncommon event; the important question for this Inquiry is how an ordinary domestic fire could have had such catastrophic consequences for the whole building and its occupants.”

When delivering his statement to the House of Commons on the report, Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated, “In short it was the cladding that turned a routine and containable kitchen fire into a disaster of unprecedented proportions.”

No ordinary household fires It was an electrical fault in an everyday appliance which set in motion the series of events leading to a national tragedy on the night of June 14, 2017 which claimed 72 lives. Phase 2 of the Grenfell Inquiry will consider the use of a “highly combustible cladding system” on the building which the report finds was “the primary cause of the rapid spread of fire up, around and down the building”.

Addressing the safety concerns around the use of such systems is of paramount importance, and the completed inquiry will have significant consequences.

When it comes to product safety, commonplace household electrical goods should not and must not pose commonplace risks to the health and lives of consumers. Defective products and

Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards

their consequences should not be – or be seen to be – ordinary or routine. If my tumble dryer had gone on fire, I would not have thought it to be ordinary or routine.

And I don’t imagine many consumers would. As Lynn Faulds Woods has stated, “unsafe products still blight too many lives with thousands of unnecessary injuries, accidents, fires and even deaths every year”. Home Office statistics indicate that of the 26,610 dwelling fires with accidental causes in 2018/19 in England, the second largest cause category was “faulty appliances and leads” which caused 15% of all accidental dwelling fires.

Working to ensure that faulty products do not enter the supply chain is one of the key roles of trading standards. Yet for years the profession has been subjected to cuts which have reduced services to a husk of what they once were while still

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

being responsible for discharging duties under more than 250 pieces of legislation (and growing). This disparity has not just appeared overnight. CTSI and others have repeatedly called attention to the simple fact that cuts to trading standards put consumers at risk.

The UK consumer product recall – An independent review by Faulds Woods in 2016 declared there was “an urgent need to improve funding, training, resources and procedures for market surveillance – the enforcement authorities whose job it is to make the system work effectively”.

The report highlighted the cuts to trading standards, and concluded, “as a result there are few – if any – resources in parts of the country for market surveillance”.

While the establishment of the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) may be heralded as the panacea for the

product safety regime, the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee made clear in The safety of electrical goods in the UK: follow-up inquiry of November 2019 that this does not negate the imperative to support local trading standards: “The introduction of OPSS also did not change the roles and responsibilities of Local Trading Standards (LTS) or other market surveillance authorities,” said the report.

“In our previous report, we noted that LTS budgets had been significantly cut and their services in many cases severely diminished. We are therefore concerned that while money has been invested in a national product safety body, as we recommended, this has not been accompanied by additional funding for LTS, who are the eyes and ears of the OPSS. While LTS now have access to OPSS support in areas such as training and research, their funding problems have not been addressed. This questions their ability to carry out surveillance and enforcement activities at a local level.”

Furthermore, the Committee notes their surprise that the struggles of LTS have not been addressed and demands that “the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy must stop hiding behind cuts elsewhere and take responsibility for LTS and work with others across Government to ensure it is fully funded.”

The disparity between the importance of the roles played by trading standards in protecting consumers and the ongoing cuts to services must be rectified. Just as product safety failures should not be seen as ordinary or routine, neither should the ongoing cuts to trading standards. n

| 15

Knife sales

By Helen Nugent

THE SHARP END 16 |

Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards

As a wave of knife-related crimes continues to blight communities across the UK, Helen Nugent looks at the efforts being made by trading standards to clamp down on sales of knives and other dangerous goods to young people ‘Five people stabbed within two hours in London’ said the headline. Another reported that ‘shocking new figures reveal nine knife crimes a day are recorded across Greater Manchester’. A third read: ‘Knife crime hits record high in England and Wales’.

These are all news stories from recent weeks; a cursory Google search using the words ‘knife crime’ reveals many others. What’s even more alarming is that a significant number of these incidents involve teenagers. It’s not hard to see that local authorities have their work cut out tackling underage sales of knives.

It has been a criminal offence to sell a bladed item (except a folding pocket knife with a blade measuring three inches or less) to minors since the Offensive Weapons Act 1996 amended the Criminal Justice Act 1988. Now the Offensive Weapons Act 2019, which received Royal Assent on May 16 but has yet to become law, will make it illegal to possess dangerous weapons in private and will also make it a criminal offence to dispatch bladed products sold online without verifying that the buyer is over 18.

In addition, the new legislation will criminalise underage sales of certain harmful corrosive substances, such as strong acids. The mandatory age verification for online knife sales will also apply to corrosives, as well as banning the

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

delivery of such products to click-andcollect lockers.

It all sounds positive and trading standards officers say there is much to welcome in the Act. But what about the practical difficulties of enforcing these new rules? At the time of writing, the Government had yet to assign any new funding to support trading standards in these areas, and it’s likely that the work involved will be expensive.

Stephen Knight is Operations Director at London Trading Standards. He explains the concerns that officers have about the new regime. “When the new Offensive Weapons Act finally comes into force – we don’t know when it will yet – that puts huge new burdens on local authority trading standards services in two key ways,” he says. “First of all, there’s the whole issue of corrosives, some of which are covered also by the Poisons Act, although that’s not a trading standards issue to enforce. That means trading standards officers in theory will need both

WE’VE SAID TO THE HOME OFFICE, IF YOU WANT THIS TO BE PROPERLY ENFORCED, OR REALLY ANY MEANINGFUL ENFORCEMENT, IT’S GOT TO COME WITH NEW RESOURCES

training in some of these chemicals but also will start conducting test purchases in the type of retailers they’ve not had to visit before. But almost the bigger part of this is the elements about delivery of both knives and corrosives in the Offensive Weapons Act.” Knight agrees that it is right to introduce these new offences but says that “the problem with that is logistically it’s going to be almost impossible to enforce without big resources”.

He adds: “The kind of resources needed to enforce it look to be completely outside the remit of any one local authority, particularly small London local authorities. What we’ve said in our response to the Home Office is that if you want this to be properly enforced, or really any meaningful enforcement, it’s got to come with new resources.”

Funding gap?

Home Office funding for extra in-store test purchases of knives runs out in March 2020 and nothing has been said about further monies to continue this work. In fact, various councils have stepped up their test purchasing despite no extra funding – with impressive results.

Cenred Elworthy, Principal Trading Standards Officer at Barking and Dagenham Council, says that last year trading standards carried out more than

| 17

Knife sales

By Helen Nugent

2,231

15%

47,100

80 knife test purchases without external funding. “We work quite closely with the police so we had a particular police team that were going out with us; that worked quite well,” he says. “We managed to drive our failure rate down from around 20% to 2% or 3%. We didn’t prosecute anyone last year but the previous year we had significant prosecutions.”

One of these prosecutions (conducted with Redbridge Trading Standards) led to a court victory against B&M Retail and an order to pay more than £490,000 in relation to three offences of underage sales of knives. Staff had sold knives to teenagers as young as 14. The fine was reduced on appeal to £300,000. Similarly, in July 2019, Tool Supplies UK Ltd of Heswell, Wirral, and Inifer Potter and Son Ltd of Hockley in Essex were fined £8,000 and each was ordered to pay costs of more than £2,000 following prosecutions brought by Croydon Trading Standards (see below). Large penalties are being levied across the country – much more than historic fines of just a few hundred pounds.

Nevertheless, national data shows that children have been able to buy knives from small independent stores and major high street shops. Of 2,231 tests carried out by trading standards in England and Wales between April 1, 2018 and March 31, 2019, retailers failed to prevent the sale of a knife to a child on 344

separate occasions (15%). Poundland, Home Bargains, Asda and Tesco sold knives to children at least 15 times each during the tests.

While some retailers have since taken action to help prevent the sale of knives to children, trading standards is still hard at work tackling underage sales. In London, trading standards has joined forces with the Deputy Mayor and the Metropolitan Police to encourage stores to engage in the fight against knife crime.

causes of knife crime, we have been doing everything we can, together with the Metropolitan Police and London Trading Standards, to crack down on illegal knife sales to teenagers. This includes providing training for retailers and police officers visiting all local businesses selling knives. This way we can ensure retailers are able to challenge an illegal sale, ease potential conflict, and know when to contact the police. Working together we can stop knives from getting into the hands of young people.”

In November 2018 Croydon Trading Standards received a grant through National Trading Standards from the Home Office to carry out enforcement of knife-related test purchases. The funding originated from the Serious Violence Strategy released by the Government in 2018. Officers were asked to identify and test purchase from 100 online knife retailers based in the UK. Accordingly, between November 2018 and the end of March 2019, Croydon carried out 100 test purchase operations using a 13-year-old volunteer. Some 41 sales were made and, of those sales, 17 cases have progressed to court. Of those 17 cases, 10 retailers have pleaded guilty, another one was found guilty, two are going to trial and a further four await first hearing (see table, opposite).

Trish Burls, Trading Standards Manager for Croydon Council, says:

Test purchases carried out in England and Wales between April 2018 and March 2019

18 |

The failure rate among retailers during age-restricted test purchases conducted in 2018-2019

Responsible retailers The Responsible Retailer Agreement (RRA), launched in September, invites all London retailers selling knives to sign up. It is hoped that the initiative, which includes the ASSESS-CHALLENGECHECK process for selling age-restricted goods, will improve best practice.

Sophie Linden, Deputy Mayor for policing and crime, says: “Knives have no place on the streets of London. As part of the Mayor’s public health approach to reducing violence and tackling the

KNIVES HAVE NO PLACE ON THE STREETS OF LONDON. WORKING TOGETHER WE CAN STOP KNIVES FROM GETTING INTO THE HANDS OF YOUNG PEOPLE

Offences involving a knife or sharp instrument recorded by police in England and Wales in 2018-2019

Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards

5,149

21%

THERE IS OFTEN PRESSURE TO CARRY OUT TEST PURCHASING IN THE AREA BUT WITHOUT ANY REAL INFORMATION TO SAY WHERE THIS PERSON, WHILST UNDERAGE, GOT THE KNIFE FROM

“Without the grant funding, this operation would not have been possible. This has been a hugely resource-intensive operation for the Croydon team, who have still, to their absolute credit, had to deal with business as usual, as well as these cases. The profession is being squeezed from all sides – unless more resources are identified we’re not going to be able to continue what we have started. The new Act will bring with it more enforcement challenges and in order to meet those challenges, more funding is essential.”

Knight says that regarding online test purchasing and enforcing the delivery of

knives, “the technical challenges are so great that without a regional or national team put together to deal with this, I just can’t see it realistically happening in any meaningful way.”

the area but without any real information to say where this person, whilst underage, got the knife from,” he points out. “We don’t even know whether they bought the knife or whether they stole it, or whether it was out of the kitchen drawer or the shed or wherever. Whereas with alcohol and tobacco sales we often get information fed to us, maybe by businesses, maybe by consumers who witness young people buying.”

He adds: “It would be helpful if, as part of the investigation, police focused on where the weapon came from.”

Over in Barking and Dagenham, Elworthy says: “The big issue for us at the moment is that although there are sentencing guidelines for possessing a knife in a public place, there are no guidelines for selling knives to minors.

Trading standards plans to ask for an amendment to the current Sentencing Guidelines to include sales alongside the possession”.

In the meantime, the council sends ‘well done’ letters to traders that have passed test purchases. “We do a spreadsheet from a database where we enter the details and then we do a mail merge and just send them out. It takes an hour. But I think if you don’t do that then the shops don’t know that we’re out there doing it and then you haven’t got any feedback and you’re not actually going to improve the market.” n

Hospital admissions in England in 2018-2019 due to assault with a sharp object

Knife-related cases in which juveniles (those aged 10-17) were the offenders

Point of origin There’s also the issue of where knives being carried by young people actually come from, whether it’s the kitchen, a garden shed or a shop. Brandon Cook, CTSI’s Lead Officer for age-restricted sales, says that one of the problems is the lack of useful information. “There is often pressure to carry out test purchasing in

KNIFE SALES PROSECUTIONS IN CROYDON Trading Name Ironmongery Online/Absolute Hardware

Outcome Fine (£10,000)

Ronnie Sunshine’s

Fine (£5,000)

Toolsupplies Ltd

Fine (£8,000)

Potters Cookshop

Fine (£8,000)

Heaton Catering Equipment

Fine (£8,000)

Cromwells Tools t/a Zoro

Fine (£40,000)

Fishers Catering Supplies

Fine (£8,000)

Milwaukee Tool Store/Today Tech

Trial pending

Legend Cookshop/Technophobia Communications Ltd

Fine (£12,000)

Sealants and Tools Direct

Fine (£8,000)

Woodland Ways

Fine (£8,000)

Outdoor GB/Extreme GB Perkin Knives Limited

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

Trial pending Fine (£10,000)

| 19

UK ECC

20 |

By Susan Tolman

Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards

‘We’re still here, we’re still helping’ Against a backdrop of Brexit uncertainty, the UK European Consumer Centre continues to work tirelessly to assist UK consumers in cross-border complaints, writes the UK ECC’s Information and Communications Officer Susan Tolman In a world where little is certain, it’s refreshing to know that there is at least one thing that we can rely on. Whilst politicians argue among themselves, much of the country is unclear of the direction the UK is taking and the dreaded B-word (Brexit) is still reverberating in everyone’s ears, the UK European Consumer Centre (UK ECC) is a beacon of hope for consumers.

The consumer advice service, which has handled over 162,000 cases of problem purchases since its inception in 2007, is delivered by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) and is currently co-funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the European Commission.

Although on the face of it, with Brexit looming, you would be forgiven for thinking that the UK ECC may soon cease to exist, you’d be wrong. We are still very much in business – the centre is pleased to be able to say that UK consumers will be able to rely on us coming to their rescue in disputes with EU traders, certainly in the immediate future.

According to UK ECC Service Director Andy Allen, “We anticipate that the centre

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

providing the UK consumer service for disputes with EU traders will continue to operate at least until the end of 2020. The UK Government has committed to fund the centre for that time and will keep it under review for a year. The service has an uncertain future after that, given Brexit ambiguity. But for now, we’re still here and we’re still helping.”

At the moment, the UK ECC is part of the European Consumer Centre Network (ECC-Net). There are 30 centres in the EU, plus Iceland and Norway. The network aims to provide advice and support to consumers who have a dispute with a trader based in a European country outside the UK. We will continue to assist consumers in the attempt to resolve their complaints.

Future methods of working are likely to involve our consumer advisers making direct contact with traders in the EU rather than liaising with counterparts across the network.

But our consumer advisers’ experience and their multilingual ability – we speak several languages other than English, including Polish, German and Italian – will stand the service and by definition UK consumers in good stead.

| 21

UK ECC

By Susan Tolman

Line of defence The UK ECC will still be able to provide advice after Brexit on: buying goods and services, online shopping, internet auctions, holidays, timeshare and holiday clubs, and air travel.

According to Allen, “Nothing will change in the immediate aftermath of Brexit. It’s certain that we will still be here to advise consumers in what could become an ever-more complicated arena of buying goods and services across European borders. What is also certain is that in the event of Brexit there will be a greater need for us.

“What is more uncertain is our long-term future. However, without the centre UK consumers would be left without the support they need. So we hope that the outlook for both us and UK consumers is promising.

“The UK ECC is the hub of specialist free advice in dealing with disputes arising from purchases of goods and services from the EU. Our demise would be a huge loss to consumers.”

In the future, as now, consumers need to be assured that if they have a particular dispute or problem they will find an established set of

22 |

organisations which can deal with their grievance after Brexit.

“The UK ECC is geared up to deal with cross-border disputes despite differences in national laws,” Allen says.

“We are glad the Government has acted to provide a level of consistency for consumers post-Brexit.”

A need for the UK ECC The UK ECC has always viewed EU membership as good for consumer protection and, as well as legislation, advice and support structures such as the UK ECC need to be protected after Brexit if consumers are not to

“Nothing will change in the immediate aftermath of Brexit.

We will still be here to advise consumers… in the event of Brexit there will be a greater need for us”

suffer unnecessarily. According to CTSI Chief Executive Leon Livermore, “The UK ECC has grown from strength to strength in the 12 years since its inception. It’s important that UK consumers know they can still turn to the UK ECC if things go wrong for them when buying elsewhere in the EU. “This question sits at the very heart of the constant battle of how best to protect consumers in the 21st century.

It’s important to preserve the UK ECC long-term.”

Acting Director of Consumer Affairs at the European Commission Marie-Paule Benassi said earlier this year: “The UK ECC has consistently delivered high quality and rapid service to consumers. It is esteemed by the network, respected by traders and trusted by consumers in the UK and EU Member States.”

Former Director of Consumer Policy for the European Commission Jacqueline Minor said in the foreword of CTSI’s ‘Preparing for Brexit’ publication recently: “The UK’s membership of the EU has seen a period of immense change for consumers and businesses.

“Regardless of anyone’s political views, there can be no doubt that the UK’s

Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards

Real-world scenarios In the following section we look at some of the consumer areas which could be affected in the event of a no-deal Brexit:

What about my package travel rights? » The Package Travel Directive rules will no longer protect UK consumers who buy package holidays from EU-based operators not actively targeting customers in the UK, where that provider becomes insolvent. The UK Government’s technical notice states that individual consumers are to be responsible for ensuring that they are provided with clear information, including of the applicable insolvency protection, before they take part in any transaction.

What about my European Health Insurance Card (EHIC)? » The European Health Insurance Card will no longer be made available to UK citizens. This means that those travelling from the UK to EU/EEA states will need to buy health insurance to cover accidents and emergencies following a no-deal Brexit.

What about protection for timeshare sales? » Consumers who buy a timeshare in an EU Member State under a contract, whose governing law is not English law, will be subject to the timeshare protection available to consumers in that Member State only.

They will lose what is available to them currently under the Timeshare Directive. They will also no longer be able to insist on an English-language version of their contract, as provided for under the Directive.

Will I still be able to use Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) bodies? » UK ECC consumer advisors sometimes refer UK consumers to ADR bodies for further help.

UK-based organisations that provide ADR will no longer act in crossborder disputes between the UK and EU/EEA states. Instead, consumers will need to engage ADR bodies where the retailer is based.

Can I still use the European Small Claims Procedure? » The European Small Claims Procedure will no longer be made available to UK consumers.

Also, UK consumers will not be able to pursue a claim in the UK small claims court where the retailer is based.

Will UK consumers still be able to use the Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) platform? » The European Commission’s Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) procedure will no longer be available to UK consumers.

The ODR platform is an EU website that links consumers with ADR providers in the EU.

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

| 23

UK ECC

By Susan Tolman

Case study After being stranded in Lisbon for 30 hours without help or support, a UK consumer called on the UK ECC to get financial compensation. Mr G and his wife went on a bespoke holiday to Portugal. Their onward flight from Lisbon was cancelled late in the evening and the couple were left stranded in Lisbon for about 30 hours without any help or support. The reason given was ‘crew problems’.

They had to find their own hotel very late in the evening, something which they found impossible to do. So they contacted their travel agent on the 24-hour emergency service. The company stepped in and arranged accommodation at the only hotel available at such short notice.

Mr G and his wife tried to complain at Lisbon airport at the start of their holiday and again on the way back two weeks later, but the airline refused to accept any complaints at the airport and insisted that all complaints must be submitted online.

This was done on their return home to Bristol, but the airline completely ignored their complaint for 18 months.

After attempting to contact the airline on eight occasions between October 2017 and March 2019 (including registration of their complaint) all they received was an automated email response in Portuguese from a no-reply email address, but no further response or status update.

Eventually in desperation Mr G contacted the UK ECC, who shared the case with the ECC in Portugal. Mr G had asked for reimbursement for his extra expenses of hotel, airport meals and taxis to and from their hotel. The consumer told the UK ECC that the travel company provided him and his wife with a fantastic holiday and also pulled out all the stops to help them when

24 |

the airline “completely abandoned us in Lisbon late one evening for a whole day without any help or support”.

To resolve the case, an ECC Portugal consumer advisor made contact with the trader and Mr G subsequently received compensation of €1,104.70 from the airline.

Mr G said: “It wasn’t until we contacted the UK European Consumer Centre that we made any progress at all and we received the appropriate compensation.

Without the help of the UK ECC, we believe we’d still be waiting.

“We are extremely thankful for your

intervention in helping to bring this whole sorry episode to a satisfactory conclusion from our point of view.”

Andy Allen, Service Director at the UK ECC, said: “Our advisor used EC Regulation 261/2004 – what’s known as the Air Passenger Rights Regulations – to secure Mr G’s money. This regulation protects passengers when their flight is cancelled or delayed. It also covers travellers if they are denied boarding.

“This is just one example of an EU Regulation working to protect the rights of a UK consumer.”

Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards

vote to leave has created a huge legal change as the Government now has to unpick decades of interconnected laws, frameworks and relationships. We need to fight to ensure that levels of consumer protection and regulatory standards are not diminished outside the EU.” Unanswered questions As Allen points out, “This centre providing the UK consumer service for disputes with EU traders will become even more important in helping consumers negotiate around the rights which will exist after Brexit. The legislation that exists encourages companies to treat consumers right. Who knows what will happen if these protections are no longer in place? Who knows how these currently law-abiding companies will behave?”

Although little is expected to change straight away after Brexit in terms of the legislation itself, the Government needs to make good on the promise of ensuring ‘no less protection’ for consumers long-term.

Allen says: “The Government’s aim to transfer all directly applicable EU law to ensure ‘no less protections’ on the day we leave the EU is welcomed. But in the long term, divergence from the current system of rules, regulations and protections offered by the EU single market will inevitably bring uncertainty and costs for businesses and consumers. When we see divergency, the UK ECC will be in a strong position to keep up to date with these changes and work with the EU. “Exiting the EU is making for considerable uncertainty over the future shape of formal relationships and mechanisms between UK consumer protection bodies and their counterpart EU institutions. Some of these relationships will need to be negotiated afresh, representing a significant risk to crossborder confidence and access to justice.”

Enforcement challenge There is another issue if the UK leaves without a deal or if agreement isn’t

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

“Who knows what will happen if these protections are no longer in place? Who knows how these currently law-abiding companies will behave?”” reached to keep certain protections in place. It is the enforcement of existing laws which is likely to be the immediate problem if the UK leaves without a deal; things which will go straight away include the European Small Claims Procedure, the Online Dispute Resolution platform and the European Enforcement Order.

The European Small Claims Procedure is a paper-based court procedure conducted in the country where the trader is based, and available for cross-border claims up to €5,000. The Online Dispute Resolution platform is an EU website that links consumers with ADR providers in the EU. The European Enforcement Order is a simple procedure used for uncontested cross-border claims.

This procedure allows a judgment in an uncontested claim delivered in one Member State to be easily recognised and enforced in another Member State.

Former Head of Policy at CTSI Craig McClue says: “Consumer rights are of little or no value if they cannot be enforced or relied upon. At the moment UK consumers are generally confident when it comes to making online cross-border purchases. However, if we exit the EU without a period to implement new arrangements, all routes to redress from the EU could suddenly disappear.

If this happens, there is a risk that UK consumers could find themselves out of pocket with very few places to turn.”

The whole Brexit uncertainty has just started to impact on consumers

calling the UK ECC for advice. “We have started to notice an increasing trickle of questions every day from concerned consumers asking if we will still be working on their cases after Brexit and querying whether their consumer rights will still be the same, particularly if there is a no-deal,” says Allen.

Areas of concern “There is potential for all of these tools and mechanisms UK consumers currently have for enforcing their consumer rights to be lost depending on how the UK leaves the EU. They will go under a nodeal scenario,” says Allen. “That concerns us as although there is relatively low use of many mechanisms such as ADR and the European Small Claims Procedure, can we guarantee that companies will behave if they aren’t there? Will consumers lose confidence and be tempted to buy more at higher prices at home?”

And what about consumers who buy online in the lead-up to Christmas? When buying online, it’s not always obvious whether a seller is based in the UK or elsewhere in the world. As we approach the Christmas shopping period, more people are likely to be tempted to buy online so the risk of problems with purchases is at its peak. “We would urge anyone buying online this Christmas to check where the seller is legally based,” says Allen. “Just because the company dispatches products from UK warehouses it does not mean that the seller is based in the UK. “Consumers have got used to buying online from sellers based throughout the EU, with access to various Europe-wide protections. Because some of the current consumer safeguard mechanisms could go after Brexit, consumers in dispute with EU sellers if they buy products after Brexit could find themselves in an ever-more complicated arena.

“The UK ECC will therefore become even more important in helping consumers negotiate around the rights which will exist after Brexit.” n

| 25

Research

Dr Tim Day

Data diver

Joint Lead Officer for Doorstep Crime Dr Tim Day recently completed a doctoral thesis that examined police records of rogue trading incidents. He spoke to JTS about his findings and what key lessons can be learnt from his work

What made you particularly interested in rogue traders and doorstep crime to begin with?

I joined trading standards 13 years ago, originally as an animal health officer.

There was a restructuring shortly after I joined and soon after that I first encountered rogue trading and doorstep crime. It really opened my eyes to that whole area. I looked at what was happening and how it was being dealt with by trading standards and the police, and it absolutely fascinated me. The more I got that practical experience, the more I could see we weren’t really where we needed to be in order to provide an effective deterrent or meaningful sanctions. I wanted to look further into that and to try to do something a little bit different, in terms of questioning the efficacy of our approach.

When you first started dealing with doorstep crime, did meeting the victims have much of an effect?

Yes, definitely. You see the inordinate impact that it has on victims and you get a sense of how what you do and how you do it can mitigate that harm to a degree.

When you boil down doorstep crime and rogue trading to its very base, what you’re looking at is financial exploitation and

26 |

fraud. And yet, the response that I saw wasn’t really approaching it on those terms – when I joined trading standards, I think there was a tendency to look at it almost as a business-consumer transaction whereby a regulatory framework was seen as sufficient for dealing with it. And it seemed at odds with who these rogue traders were, and how they were going about their ‘business’ – when to all intents and purposes that was just a front for a fraud.

By and large the victims are elderly and vulnerable, and the offenders are career criminals, often with previous convictions for similar offences. It really ought to be a police priority and yet when you juxtaposed that with the response it seemed to be getting on the ground, it didn’t seem to tally. It fascinated me how on the one hand you had this really important workstream, and on the other hand, no one seemed to be seeing it for what it was at that point.

So these were the things that spurred you on to do the doctorate?

I’d already done a Masters in criminology back before I joined trading standards, and decided that further study might provide a stronger evidence-base in relation to rogue trading, so I signed

“When you boil down doorstep crime and rogue trading to its very base, what you’re looking at is financial exploitation and fraud” up for a Professional Doctorate at the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, at the University of Portsmouth. I was keen to do a professional doctorate, rather than a traditional PhD as it can have more real-world impact on policy and practice – I wanted to blend the academic and the practical to enable me to look more broadly at what was going on from an academic perspective, but also to see how practically we can improve it.

How did you go about conducting your research?

I wanted to take an evidence-based approach. Also, it struck me that nobody had really looked at this from a police perspective. I’d been working quite closely with Thames Valley Police at that point and I’d built up a good working relationship with them. I went to a senior Officer and

Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards

pitched the project proposal, basically saying, “I want to know more about this crime type – I think there’s a lot going on here and I think we’re missing things.”

The structure of the course was quite helpful in that respect – the first two years had a modular structure, and one of those modules was effectively a pilot project.

So I got permission to look at three months of the crime recording database for Thames Valley Police to analyse those incidents that related to rogue trading and doorstep crime. The results of that were published in an international peerreviewed journal article in 2015. That really helped in terms of data access and demonstrating my credentials to the police for the next stage of the doctorate. ultimately that turned the pilot project into a bigger piece of work so my thesis was an examination of a year’s worth of

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

“By and large the victims are elderly and vulnerable, and the offenders are career criminals, often with previous convictions for similar offences”

crime recording database records from Thames Valley Police.

I was really looking at it via three strands: victimology – what we can learn from victim profiles; the offender’s MO and the anatomy of how rogue trading works; and the police response. The first thing that really leapt out was how hamstrung we are in gathering an evidence base in terms of how it’s recorded, so there’s a chapter in the thesis that looks at the whole issue of crime recording.

I draw a parallel between rogue trading and distraction burglary: if you want to go onto a database and find all the incidents of distraction burglary, you simply tick the crime code under which it appears, and all the relevant crimes will appear. Rogue trading does not benefit in the same way from having a definitive definition, so

| 27

Research

Dr Tim Day

there is no crime code or crime flag by which to identify it. What I’m calling for in my work is the introduction nationally of a crime flag for rogue trading because at the moment, there just isn’t a way of easily retrieving the information that you need to.

Why do you think that has been the case historically?

I think when you look at the difference in approach between distraction burglary and rogue trading, it’s because distraction burglary was seen as unequivocally a crime, whereas with rogue trading we didn’t have the same legislative framework back then – we do now, if you think about what’s come in since then – the Fraud Act, the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations and the Consumer Contracts Regulations in particular – they have enabled a far more robust legislative framework. There was previously, up to a point, a grey area between that which was seen as a civil dispute and that which was deliberate criminality. And rogue trading sat very much in the middle of that. I think by and large, that has now gone, but I think maybe things haven’t kept pace in terms of the ability to record data – and I think that’s probably down to resources and priorities as much as anything else.

This meant there were 10 different crime codes which could potentially contain rogue trading, depending on how it manifested. For instance, it could be recorded under criminal damage, it could be under one of the Action Fraud codes, or it could come under harassment if the criminal becomes intimidating when they

28 |

try to get hold of their money. And each of those crime codes contains a multitude of other offences, not just rogue trading.

Within those 10 crime codes there were 11,826 individual records which I needed to manually trawl though on the database.

Ultimately there were only 95 rogue trading incidents recorded within the Thames Valley area that year, but in order to find that out I had to sift through all those other reported crimes. The time that it takes to do that effectively creates a huge barrier to actually gaining an evidence base or learning about the crime type, because no crime researcher or analyst is going to have the time to do that.

Equally, performance management becomes quite difficult if you can’t easily find out things like your detection rate, or what charges are being brought – it makes it hard to get any kind of improvement.

Was there anything you uncovered that you found surprising?

Some of the findings will be familiar to people who work in this area – for example, roofing services were the most prevalent of the trade types employed by

rogue traders. There were 44 incidents in which building work was conducted within the sample, and in 27 of those cases the cost increased as the work went along. That’s a very common tactic, known as ‘bouncing the job’ – rogue traders start with small tasks, but keep finding problems that lead to demands for higher payment. Things like the transporting of victims to the bank cropped up as well within the data and an overlap between rogue trading and distraction burglary was also apparent.

What was quite interesting though was how few incidents there were that related to trade types in which you’d usually expect to see membership of a Governmentbacked scheme. For instance, there was only one case that involved gas or electric work. That spoke volumes to me. It appears that the competency or accreditation required of those schemes is a massive barrier to rogue traders.

Did you get any idea of how rogue traders tend to come into contact with their victims?

One of the reasons I wanted to use police

Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards

“I think there is a lack of knowledge, training and awareness around rogue trading itself and how it manifests” records was that it’s pre-existing material, so it’s not gathered for the purposes of research, meaning there’s no bias or model answers – and I thought that was really useful, and important when it came to examining the police response. But also it meant there were some things which would have been useful to study, but I wasn’t able to because there were gaps in the recording. One of those things is the approach type, which would have been quite interesting to see, but it just wasn’t recorded often enough. I think that, in itself, speaks volumes in terms of how the police see and deal with some of these incidents. There was a real superficiality to the records that surprised me. Financial loss, for instance, wasn’t

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

even recorded in all of the cases, which strikes me as strange given that it forms such an important part of the sentencing guidelines in fraud cases.

I think there is a lack of knowledge, training and awareness around rogue trading itself and how it manifests, but also the legislative framework we now have is not familiar to police officers, and that was abundantly clear in the data. For instance, there were only four cases in the 95 incidents of rogue trading in which there was any regard for cancellation rights, or contracts, or paperwork even.

What would be your recommendations based on your findings?

I think first of all a crime flag, by which we can identify and retrieve information about incidents of rogue trading, is absolutely essential because without that, any scrutiny or initiative that we come up with is going to be impossible to monitor.

That definition would have to come from the Home Office and it would need to be implemented by the police, and I would encourage the adoption of it across the

board, including in trading standards.

I would also call for a much closer working relationship between the police and trading standards, as well as local authority care services, to improve both the safeguarding of vulnerable people and the enforcement outcomes.

Another recommendation is that there needs to be more training in the legislative framework, to be provided by trading standards to the police force. I know that isn’t always possible – there are some trading standards departments that barely have enough staff to do what they’re doing now, never mind rolling out training programmes to the police – but where possible I think that would be a real benefit.

Finally, a Government-backed official registration or licensing scheme could offer some real benefits and I think that should be explored. A national Government-backed scheme for the building trade would be a really useful means of levelling the playing field for legitimate businesses, and guarding against some of the considerable consumer harm that results from doorstep crime. n

| 29

Child safety

30 |

By Temoor Iqbal

Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards

SAFEGUARDING the future

In the wake of a series of recent child safety campaigns, Temoor Iqbal looks at how the Office for Product Safety and Standards and CTSI work to raise awareness of products that can endanger children

Over the past few years, product safety has risen to the top of the consumer agenda, making something that was often taken for granted into a key public issue. In part, this has a lot to do with ongoing uncertainty over post-Brexit safety regulations, but a number of highprofile incidents involving children in recent years have been the main driver of wider awareness of product safety. In 2014, BBC presenter Claudia Winkleman experienced what she described as a “lifechanging” incident when her eight-yearold daughter’s Halloween costume caught fire, leaving the child with serious burns.

In 2016, 16-month-old Bronwyn Taylor sadly died when she became tangled in blind cords at her grandparents’ house, after being left alone for a matter of seconds. And in 2017, a three-year-old girl suffered fatal internal injuries after swallowing a 23mm button battery that became lodged in her oesophagus, after she had been initially misdiagnosed with tonsillitis.

These tragic cases would be unfortunate enough were they rare, isolated incidents. However, the Royal

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) makes clear that “accidental injuries are a major health problem in the UK”, adding that they are among “the most common causes of death in children over one year of age”, with an average of 62 children dying from accidents at home every year.

It’s tempting to wonder what can be done to remedy the situation, and why things haven’t been improved already.

Sadly, it would be impossible to prevent all accidents, but work is being stepped up to increase awareness and tighten regulations so preventable accidents and

“Accidental injuries are a major health problem in the UK. They are among the most common causes of death in children over one year of age”

those related to product safety can be reduced as much as possible.

Savvy scaring The main body tasked with leading the charge in this field is the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS).

The department was created in 2018, with a product regulation remit that focuses on – among other areas – “ensuring that people and places are protected, and helping consumers to make good choices”, according to CEO Graham Russell. With this in mind, over the past year OPSS has launched product safety campaigns, alongside the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI), specifically focused on protecting children from accidents and dangerous products, including Halloween costumes, blind cords and button batteries.

This year the OPSS’ Halloween costume guidance was divided into a number of key messages, distributed through a poster, leaflet and Twitter campaign.

The advice is: keep children away from open flames; look for the CE mark when buying costumes to ensure they are

| 31

Child safety

By Temoor Iqbal

safety tested; avoid counterfeit products from marketplaces and secondary sellers; check the Government’s product recall database to ensure items haven’t been recalled; and contact Citizens Advice if you discover that you’ve bought a fake or faulty item. Though it is based on common sense, this advice is particularly important for Halloween costumes, given the limited regulation in place. “These items are required to conform to ‘EN 71-2 – safety of toys – flammability’, which isn’t a particularly onerous standard”, explains Robert Chantry-Price, CTSI’s Joint Lead Officer for Product Safety.

Safety starts at home While Halloween costume accidents often take place outdoors, button battery and blind cord incidents mostly occur inside the home, making them much more difficult to control and monitor. “Button batteries are increasingly found in many consumer products, such as remote

32 |

controls, watches, hearing aids and toys in almost every home,” says Christine Heemskerk, CTSI’s Joint Lead Officer for Product Safety. “If a child swallows a button battery and it gets stuck in the throat or stomach, it will react with body fluids to create caustic soda, which can cause severe burns and sometimes fatal injuries.”

In light of these dangers, OPSS’s safety campaign focuses on awareness, care and avoidance. “Parents should make sure products using button batteries have

“There have been 33 child deaths due to blind cords since 2001.

They pose a serious strangulation risk to young children”

lockable battery compartments; children should not be allowed access to products if the battery compartment is not secure,” says Heemskerk. “Spare batteries should be locked away, and once batteries are dead they should be stored securely out of reach, and then recycled as soon as possible.”

Of course, it’s difficult to tell whether a child has swallowed a button battery, particularly when they’re too young to explain what’s wrong. Parents are advised to look out for warning signs. These include coughing, gagging, drooling or being sick; appearing to have an upset stomach or pointing to their stomach or throat; being tired, lethargic or out of sorts; or vomiting blood. Should these symptoms be observed, parents should take the child to A&E or call an ambulance, taking the battery’s packaging along if possible.

Blind to the danger Blind cords are perhaps the least wellknown danger that OPSS has released

Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards

“Manufacturers have an important part to play by complying with legislation, ensuring products conform to laws and safety requirements”

specific guidance for recently, though they present a huge risk to young children. “There have been 33 child deaths due to blind cords since 2001,” explains Heemskerk. “They pose a serious strangulation risk to young children, who may inadvertently wrap the cord around their neck and be unable to untangle themselves.”

Regulations are now in place to ensure that newly fitted blinds have cords with safety features that keep them out of reach, or cause them to break under pressure.

However, as Chantry-Price explains, “blinds that were fitted before 2014 are problematic, as the revised safety standard only came into force that year”.

This obviously affects thousands of homes across the UK, though OPSS is keen to raise awareness of the simple steps owners of pre-2014 blinds can take to make them safe for young children.

“If you have blinds fitted with cords or chains that are not firmly attached to the

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

wall, it’s important to fit a cord tidy or cable tensioner,” says Chantry-Price.

“This doesn’t just apply to parents, but to carers such as grandparents and friends of the family who may have potentially dangerous blinds in their home.”

Prevention, however, is the safest option, and Heemskerk notes that parents “should avoid placing a child’s cot, bed, playpen or highchair near a window”.

Bigger picture These campaigns serve as a strong example of OPSS’s consumer-facing role, helping to increase awareness and aid members of the public in making safe choices. However, the campaigns aren’t intended to imply that responsibility lies solely with individuals and families; manufacturers and authorities have an equally vital role to play. “Trading standards and OPSS work together to ensure that products meet the minimum standards required in terms of the

hazards that they present, through market surveillance and enforcement activities,” explains Mark Gardiner, CEO of Market Surveillance and another CTSI Joint Lead Officer for Product Safety. One example of such enforcement is the recent case of child car seat manufacturer Mamas & Papas, which was fined £20,000 for selling products that didn’t meet safety standards.

“Manufacturers have an important part to play by complying with legislation, ensuring products conform to laws and safety requirements,” explains ChantryPrice. “In fact, those that do conform sometimes hide their light under a bushel and don’t take advantage of this fact by labelling their products loud and clear.”

Ultimately, there’s no way to completely ensure safety, especially when it comes to children. Rather, the fight for product safety is a never-ending push for marginal gains, with the key stakeholders never resting in their efforts to mitigate dangers and make homes and public spaces safer. Public bodies such as OPSS and CTSI work tirelessly to develop safety standards, monitor the market to enforce regulations, and campaign for increased awareness among parents and carers, and it is through this work that hundreds, if not thousands of tragedies are averted. Some will, of course, still occur, and authorities will act accordingly to ensure that – as in the case of Bronwyn Taylor – no life is lost in vain, with lessons learned and shared as widely as possible to minimise risks in the future. n

| 33

Business

Interview with Peter McVeigh

Journal of Trading Standards

Staunch supporter As Vice President of CTSI, businessman Peter McVeigh has long been a strong advocate of trading standards.

He explains why he believes CTSI’s work is as important as ever Peter McVeigh founded Status International UK in 1991 along with his son Nicholas, and today he serves as Managing Director and Chairman of the lighting and electrical accessories supplier, which boasts a customer base across the UK and Europe. He is also Vice President of the Lighting Industry Association, in addition to serving on its Technical Committee and as a Member of its Council of Management.

He has a long history with trading standards, going back to his very earliest days in business more than 50 years ago – so why does he think it’s important for businesses and trading standards to work together?

“When I started my first business I had nowhere to turn for information,” he says.

“West Yorkshire Trading Standards was a blessing to me – they supported me and in turn I supported them.

“As we got further involved with trading standards, we realised the good work they were doing. I believe that every industry and every company should support trading

34 |

standards. In spite of cutbacks, in spite of shortfalls in I would preach the cash, they are still gospel to every at the sharp end of industry and every business, doing a company to get first-class job. behind trading “I would preach standards. I feel the gospel to every that it’s not a duty, industry and every it’s a pleasure company to get behind trading standards. It’s not a duty, it’s a pleasure.”

Maintaining standards McVeigh, who is very active in attending CTSI AGMs and branch meetings up and down the country, sees his work with trading standards as a big part of Status International’s identity; indeed, the company has been the main sponsor of CTSI’s Symposium for 24 years.

“Our dedication to quality is enforced by our long-standing partnership with CTSI,” he says. “Status International is a Corporate Member of CTSI and proud of

this fact. This reinforces our commitment to delivering quality and safety, and raises awareness of maintaining high standards across our industry. If businesses engage with trading standards, and speak to trading standards officers locally in their home authorities, they will find that there are some very helpful people there. If you approach trading standards and put your cards on the table – as a half Yorkshireman, half Irishman, I always say, ‘Say it as it is’ – they will help you.

“I can only sing the highest praises to what I know about trading standards.

They’ve been good to my company, they’ve been good to me personally in terms of giving information and assistance, and they provide the best possible advice because they are in a position to do that.

“At the same time, I’ve had the pleasure, over many years, of meeting some wonderful, gracious people through trading standards. Even though I’m getting a bit long in the tooth, I hope that continues for many years.” n

Winter 2019

Nominate a Colleague Fellowship Do you know someone who has ‘gone the extra mile’ for our profession?

Any member with suitable support can nominate another for consideration by the college and CTSI council.

We rely on your support by way of donations to enable this support.

If you are interested please contact us at college@tsi.org.uk

Do you know a colleague like this?

CTSI membership fees 2020 (Not including branch fees)

Full membership

Annual fees (1)

Annual fees (2)

Standard fees 2020 rates

With early payment discount 2020 rates

Annual fees (3) With direct debit discount 2020 rates

£126

£121

£116

Chartered Trading Standards Practitioner (addn. fee)

£50

£50

£50

Associate membership

£84

£81

£78

Retired membership

£42

£41

£39

Affiliate membership

£102

£98

£94

Student membership

£42

£41

£39

(1) Branch fees are collected nationally. Individual invoices will contain this extra amount where applicable. Current fees vary but in brief, for Full Members these are London £8.00, Midland and North Western £10, South Eastern £11.00, Yorkshire and the Humber, North East, Scotland, South East Midlands, Northern Ireland and Welsh £5.00. Southern, South Western, and East Midlands, £0. Also a charge of £10.00 will be included for members of the Business Members Group.

(2) For card, cheque or cash payments you must pay by 28th February 2020 to qualify for the discount. To pay by debit/credit card, please contact us on tel: 01268 582200. Regrettably, we are unable to accept card details in written or electronic form.

(1) and (2) Please make cheques payable to: Chartered Trading Standards Institute

www.tradingstandards.uk

Sprea d payme your nts make great and nothin savings – g ext to pay ra

(3) For new payments by annual, quarterly or monthly direct debit the form must be received by 28th February 2020 to receive the direct debit discount. If you paid by this method last year, your discounts will automatically be given (please note we cannot accept electronic copies of this form).

Representative example: Monthly direct debit 0% APR representative.

Full membership subscription £116 - 1 payments of £9.74 followed by 11 payments of £9.66 per month.Total amount payable £116.00. For further information and finance terms please contact CTSI, 1 Sylvan Court, Sylvan Way, Southfields Business Park, Basildon. SS15 6TH (4) Students in full time education are FREE for their qualifying term.

Leading the trading standards profession

Think Piece

Brexit, flextensions and winter elections: WATTBA! Craig McClue Craig is the former Head of Policy at CTSI.

We must have an implementation or transition period to make sure consumer protection and regulatory services can adapt to new regimes with confidence.

36 |

In the current political climate of uncertainty and confusion, important trading standards issues have taken a back seat.

Let’s hope 2020 brings more clarity, writes Craig McClue A couple of friends and I privately text the acronym WATTBA!, understood as a withering response for when one of us has ventured something personal or an opinion we think strong and shareworthy.

The response, “Wow, WATTBA!” (or, sometimes the Scottish alternative, ‘did ye aye?’) is the instantly effective means of belittling your point. WATTBA? Well, it’s shorthand for “what a time to be alive!” and if you receive it – your point is stupid or worthless, you’re overstating things, or frankly, you’re taking yourself far too seriously.

I will however, without fear of overstatement or accusations of hyperbole, state that these are remarkably pivotal times and for the businesses and consumers of UK PLC. I suspect too, when looked back upon, this period of political history will be studied, dissected and judged. Either it proves the folly that misled a nation to economic decline and regulatory confusion, or, in retrospect it’s held up as a shining example of how

to reassert national sovereignty and prosperity from the clutches of a deficient geo-political experiment. (Of the two, I know where my money is going).

To get just how extraordinary these days are, look at the astounding brinkmanship that played out as the UK was a few days away from a scary ‘no deal’ exit on Halloween. Overnight, our entire trading standards regulatory framework was to be switched – rebooted – into a new era, relying on thousands of untested statutory instruments and hope that everything still worked.

Would new product conformity assessment systems and markings have blended seamlessly? Would ports and borders be swamped and blocked? Would trading standards officers’ warrants have authorised them properly under schemes of delegation? Thankfully, for now, noone in trading standards need answer this. Yet. At this stage no-one needs to delve through the Product Safety and Metrology etc. (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit)

Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards

Regulations 2019. (Only 619 pages, 20 longer than the entire UK/EU Withdrawal agreement!).

Prolonging the agony The political maths thwarted a Brexit do-or-die or no deal, and the can was kicked on again, this time until the end of January 2020 – the EU agreeing to the prime minister’s somewhat reluctant request for a further extension. In fact, we were granted a ‘flextension’, meaning the end of January date isn’t fixed if we get a deal through before then. (And proving once and for all that this is the era where made-up portmanteau words such as ‘Brexit’ or ‘flextension’ truly flourish!)

Finally, mercifully, an election was called to break the political impasse. At the time of writing manifestos haven’t been published so we can’t yet know whether this election will answer more than whether we can ‘get Brexit done’.

While Brexit clarity is huge for trading standards, there are so many other issues

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

we need an incoming Government to focus on.

Our Christmas wish-list? Well, the recent report from the BEIS Commons Committee on Electrical Safety gives a hint. No surprises or punches pulled finding that Whirlpool put corporate status before consumer safety, or that the Office of Product Safety and Standards could and should have acted faster and stronger to tackle their intransigency.

My favourite line however, was this one: “BEIS must stop hiding behind cuts elsewhere and take responsibility for local trading standards and work with others across Government to ensure it is fully funded.” Remarkably, with this line a group of MPs finally exposed the great obfuscation used by the Government to defend trading standards cuts. No longer should criticisms of a failing trading standards system be met with handwringing and platitudes about TS budget cuts being ‘local decisions’. And so our wish for one gift, new Government, is

that this recommendation is met with the deeds to see it through. Be in no doubt that this vital local resource cannot survive without action. A further political term of austerity cuts and inaction will leave little more than a shell. One that might never recover to be a vital regulatory service worthy of the name.

And Brexit? Well, let’s finally cut the brexcrement. (Sorry!) If and when we leave the EU all promises of a smooth and orderly departure are still hugely important. In practice that means we must have an implementation or transition period to make sure consumer protection and regulatory services can first consider, and then adapt, to new regimes with confidence.

We will enter 2020 at a truly important juncture. It will be the year that our long running story of EU hokey-cokey reaches a more certain destiny. Let’s hope too that we get a new Government with the vision and means to put local trading standards on a more sustainable path. WATTBA! indeed. n

| 37

Regulation

By Emma Rose

Seeing red The everyday consumer protections we take for granted were brought about by years of passionate campaigning and diligent work - we should not accept any attempts to weaken them, writes Emma Rose

38 |

Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards

Most British citizens carry out their day-to-day lives shored up by a set of expectations about how things should be. We expect the food we eat to be safe, the toys we buy our children to be trustworthy, our transport systems to be decent. We expect the things we buy – from sofas to smartphones – to meet certain standards, without us needing to check. There is an expectation that ordinary activities such as card transactions, bank transfers and home repairs should take place safely and smoothly. This set of assumptions allows us to get on with our lives without thinking too much about why these things – for the most part – serve us well.

Behind the well-functioning systems that we have come to depend on, there is a chain of assurances that have been put in place to make sure that we can safely interact with the world around us. This carefully designed invisible network of checks and balances, guarded by designated public protectors, forms the backdrop to our everyday activities.

Decent products dominate the market because most of their damaging

“These rules are ours, we made them part and parcel of our modern democracy. A collective set of expectations about the kind of country we want to live in” www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

counterparts are intercepted by trading standards officers. Decent food outlets are the norm because dangerous and dirty kitchens are shut down by environmental health teams. Trustworthy traders outnumber rogue operators, thanks to the efforts of enforcement teams to keep the cowboys in check. All these things are made safe, not by accident, but by design.

When this chain of assurances operates well, it does so invisibly, silently.

As an environmental health officer recently put it to me: “A good day is one in which nothing happens.” This makes it all too easy to overlook the work of enforcement teams, who work ‘upstream’ to prevent catastrophe, rarely receiving the plaudits they deserve for upholding the rules we all depend on.

These rules have come into existence for a reason, carefully constructed over the years, mirroring sensible shifts in public opinion. This drive for common standards and good practice speaks to the Great British values that echo through hundreds of years of law-making. The 1833 Factory Act, which banned children under nine from working in factories, was driven by a widely backed public campaign. Labelling standards for baby food were introduced after campaigners pointed out that labelling requirements were more stringent for socks than they were for sausages. Can any of us now believe that it took until 1988, or that it required a public outcry, to stop sofas being made with flammable fabrics?

These rules are ours, we made them part and parcel of our modern democracy.

A collective set of expectations about the kind of country we want to live in.

| 39

Regulation

By Emma Rose

Deep cuts But the agencies who make sure that businesses are sticking to the rules are in a bad way. Years of cuts to the budgets of local and national enforcement teams, by more than 50% in some cases, have been matched by huge declines in staffing.

Enforcement activities – from inspections and monitoring to sanctions and prosecutions – have fallen dramatically.

In the light of the UK’s growing ‘enforcement gap’, the protections we take for granted seem more fragile. Water and air pollution, environmental decline, food fraud, allergen mislabelling, animal welfare breaches, workplace accidents, counterfeit products, worker exploitation, financial fraud and scams: these things take on a greater significance when we realise that the agencies tasked with preventing them may no longer have the tools for the job.

This erosion of our public protection bodies has not taken place in a vacuum.

Successive governments have moved to highlight the disadvantages of regulation, each scrambling to outdo their

“The very worst outcomes are more catastrophic, costly and ultimately burdensome on businesses, citizens and the state than simply sticking to a set of well-made rules” 40 |

predecessors in their efforts to lighten the regulatory load on businesses. Chancellor Sajid Javid’s recent announcement of a ‘Brexit Red Tape Challenge’ is the latest in a long line of policies designed to reduce our regulatory stock. This approach has been accompanied by policy moves to overhaul the UK’s enforcement regime, replacing proactive inspections with risk-based inspections, and promoting regulatory self-assurance. While these policies certainly have the potential to benefit and streamline enforcement, they must not be used as cover for the political imperative to reduce regulation at all costs – regardless of the impacts on ordinary people.

The redesigning of regulation as a numbers game fundamentally misses the point. The job of good regulation and robust enforcement is, in part, to prevent the worst outcomes. And the very worst outcomes – pollution, poisoning, fire – are more catastrophic, costly and ultimately burdensome on businesses, citizens and the state than simply sticking to a set of well-made rules.

Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards

“Calling for a bonfire of ‘red-tape’ is an easy drum to beat.

But it has very direct consequences” Deep impacts Calling for a bonfire of ‘red-tape’ – and for the paring down of the regulators that ‘wield’ it – is an easy drum to beat. But it has very direct consequences. Just a few weeks into the job, the new Natural England Chair, Tony Juniper, warned that the best of English nature is at risk due to cuts. Experts have warned that local trading standards teams are woefully ill-equipped to deal with a potential flood of toys, cars and electrical appliances into the UK after Brexit. In July this year it emerged that nearly 700 schools have been referred to the Health and Safety Executive because they are failing to safely manage asbestos on site. Track back, and we can see that proactive inspections for asbestos in schools were discontinued in 2011.

In fact, there is a substantial bank of academic literature on the positive indirect effects of regulation and enforcement.

According to the (now defunct) Office of Fair Trading, trading standards services generate £6 of consumer savings for every £1. Every £1 spent on waste crime enforcement yields a return of as much as £5.60. For every £1 of budget, the

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

contribution to the economy of the Food Standards Agency is around £1.50.

Our regulators and local authorities do an amazing job. But in order to survive in a policy environment which assesses the value of regulations primarily in economic terms, UK enforcers have had little choice but to internalise this approach. Truncated, hamstrung, compelled to reduce interventions, regulators must now act more like commercial organisations, always pushed to do more with less. The truth is that they will just do less, and our safety will be compromised as a result. And yet no-one has asked the British public if they are happy to make these sacrifices.

For most people, in fact, sensible rules are an integral part of what makes Britain a decent place to live. Never has it been more important to invest in our shared safeguards. To do this, we need to invest in the bodies that exist to defend them. ■

Emma Rose is Project Lead at campaign group Unchecked.uk.

Find out more at www.unchecked.uk

| 41

42 |

In conversation with: Tim Gass

Journal of Trading Standards

I N C O N V E R S AT I O N W I T H

TIM GASS

The diversity of supply chains means supermarkets’ compliance departments must be of the highest order. Tesco looked to the other side of the fence when it recruited former trading standards officer Tim Gass as its Regulatory Compliance Manager

BY MICHAEL MCCAW

Complying with trading standards at an organisation that acquires, produces and distributes an enormous variety of consumer products is a huge challenge, and not one that can be constantly met. The evidence certainly supports that argument.

Over the course of the past few years, the UK’s leading supermarkets have faced food product and children’s toy recalls, requests for information over cold calling, all-too public complaints filed by a host of suppliers, accusations of misleading price promotions, and of course a super complaint.

The market is dominated by a few large players, each generating huge amounts of business each day. Tesco in itself lists 450,000 employees generating £56.9bn in group sales this year. The company is subject to examination by a host of enforcement and trade bodies – from the National Farmers Union (NFU), the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and of course each and every one of the UK’s regional trading standards authorities. Tesco tends to hear from all of them, so trying to keep on top of compliance issues as the supply chain morphs is a process that needs control.

Tim Gass is Regulatory Compliance Manager at Tesco, in addition to his

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

recent appointment as a Non-Executive Director of CTSI. “Before joining Tesco, I hadn’t appreciated the breadth and depth of regulators that impact on the work of large multi-site retailers,” he says. “The close scrutiny perhaps comes as no surprise, but it does mean that the business takes compliance very seriously and spends a lot of resource to get things right. It is easy for outsiders to underestimate quite how much goes on. There are also technical and audit teams focusing on individual products to ensure they are legally compliant, and specialist technological and risk experts that ensure the right decisions are made.”

Making a difference Having spent nearly 13 years working as a trading standards officer – in Cambridgeshire, Westminster and Hertfordshire – Gass wanted to do what he’d already been doing within trading standards: make a difference to consumers’ lives. One might assume that spending so much time as an enforcement officer and latterly a compliance manager would require a no-nonsense, black-and-white approach to his work, but that’s far from the case for Gass, who says his principal tool in getting things done is working with people to get positive outcomes.

| 43

In conversation with: Tim Gass

“Tesco is a huge organisation and, like in life, you’ve got many thousands of people who each have different attitudes on how they should do things. In the same way I did as a trading standards officer, I have to dig into a bag of tools and use various tactics to change behaviours, ensure compliance and work to ensure the right result is achieved for the consumer.

To be persuasive you have to be part of the solution rather than the guy that always says ‘no’ to new ideas.” he says.

“My approach has always been to be a facilitator and a problem solver. If I can do that role well, then people will listen to me a lot more and respect the ‘no’ when I do have to say it. It’s about being credible and being helpful.”

External events can be a catalyst for change and companies often discover a need to overhaul their policies when a problem does arise. This happened earlier this year when trading standards officers conducted research into underage knife sales. The investigation entailed 2,231 test purchases of knives in England and Wales over a 12-month period to March this year. During 15% of the total tests, retailers including Poundland, Home Bargains, Asda and Tesco failed to prevent the sale of a knife to a minor.

The issue was reported far and wide, highlighting the exposures firms need to deal with every day. For Gass, working on both sides of the regulatory divide has provided insight into how the public

44 |

My approach has always been to be a facilitator and a problem solver.

It’s about being credible and being helpful

and private sector can work more closely together, and as a strong advocate of communication, he believes bridges must be maintained – bettered, even – to produce the best results for the consumer.

“I’ve seen some of the great work being done to try and tackle knife problems.

When I look at some of the initiatives, it feels like a bit of a lost opportunity – someone like me, who has experience on both sides of the fence could, by working with the officers directly, have shared some of the lessons learned and collaboratively built an even better product,” he says.

“Perhaps the wilfully compliant companies can come out of the shadows, work with trading standards and make the organisation succeed more effectively in the areas where objectives are very much aligned.”

Virtuous cycle Gass underlines the difference between the wilfully compliant firms and “definite rogues who have no intention of doing things right”, and asserts that the consumer will ultimately receive better goods and services if the former groups work with enforcers and rule makers, with both looking to put the customer first “as the decent thing to do”.

One of the most noteworthy things Gass has realised about working so long within trading standards – and with the various authorities – is that trading standards is a progressive, thoughtful and rational profession, which many others could perhaps learn from. Trading standards authorities don’t just consider prosecution as the only tool in their arsenal, rather looking to what lessons can be learned from each case – as well as

Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards

In the same way I did as a trading standards officer, I have to dig into a bag of tools and use various tactics

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

what the best possible outcome from each resolution might be.

“Having engaged now with a lot of other regulators I’ve realised that trading standards, as a profession, has got a lot of positives about it and there is a lot that officers get very right and should be proud of,” he says. “They’re the most pragmatic and grown-up of enforcers I deal with. They’re a lot more outcomefocused, a lot less red tape-driven. It’s a very knowledgeable, highly educated group of people and because they’ve got such a wide range of things to look at they’re much more able to deal with the big-picture stuff.”

But that doesn’t mean work doesn’t need to be done within the profession, which is facing its own challenges.

Since 2009, trading standards services have seen an average reduction of almost 50% in budgets, with staff numbers falling 53% over the same period. The CTSI response to a green paper entitled ‘Modernising consumer markets’ published by the Government’s department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in July last year puts forth suggestions that “larger, better sourced, units of delivery” should be strategised with local councils, with national enforcement bodies providing leadership.

For Gass – viewing the standards landscape on both sides of the fence – much of this makes sense, as does the green paper’s call for greater coordination to create a tighter working framework for national and regional standards bodies. It could be crucial for how trading standards operates.

“To survive and thrive the local authorities are really going to have to come together. There have been some very successful regional partnerships where you can see that things have moved on a lot,” Gass says.

“Also I think we need to see a shift of more partnerships generally across the field, to ensure the most is made of limited resources and the pools of expertise that are out there. This includes partnerships with businesses where goals and aims are shared. I now work with a lot of like-minded compliance specialists in the business world. We have exposure to new methodologies and real-life data as to which strategies work and which don’t.

If trading standards professionals come together with compliance specialists working on the other side of the fence, and realise that we’re stakeholders striving for consumers and compliant businesses in the same way, great things can be achieved.” n

| 45

Teeth whitening

By Michael McCaw

The dark side of

pearly whites Northern Ireland’s Trading Standards has teamed up with local councils to inform consumers of the potential dangers of illegal tooth whitening Between 2016 and last year, the General Dental Council recorded more than 2,100 complaints about tooth whitening conducted by unregistered practitioners, which led to 78 prosecutions in the UK alone. The damage caused by these procedures can be life-changing: a recent study by the British Dental Journal that reviewed some of the products commonly used by unregistered and fraudulent practitioners found that they contained several banned substances such as sodium perborate, a bleach that can cause mouth infections, blistering and burns to gums, damage to nerves and tooth enamel, and gum shrinkage.

By law, tooth whitening should only be carried out by a qualified dental professional but it’s incredibly difficult to police. A recent case in Wales – which eventually led to three individuals being ordered to pay £1.6m in damages for selling teeth whitener that contained 110 times the legal limit of hydrogen peroxide – took trading standards three years to investigate, costing £400,000. Further efforts are being made elsewhere, with the Service in Northern Ireland launching the Protect Your Smile campaign in June.

Teaming up with the Department for the Economy and the environmental

46 |

health departments of 11 district councils across Northern Ireland, the multimedia campaign was designed to warn the public of the dangers of illegal teeth whitening. The campaign is delivered in video format, with a targeted social media strategy. It has been described as “shocking” by Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Borough Council, which said it serves as a “stark reminder of the dangers of illegal tooth whitening and products and services.”

For Charlene Conlon, a Northern Ireland trading standards officer, it’s crucial viewing for those considering a procedure. “We would encourage anyone thinking of having their teeth whitened to watch this hard hitting video to help them better understand the dangers associated with illegal tooth whitening,” she says.

“Promises of fast results and a brighter smile may seem enticing but the dangerous levels of hydrogen peroxide contained in illegal tooth whitening kits may put an individual’s health at risk.”

Utilising a multimedia campaign is the useful way to draw the attention of younger people – vital to its success, says a spokesperson at the British Dental Association (BDA), which has

been campaigning to move tooth whitening solely back into the hands of registered dentists.

“Research indicates that young people in particular like white teeth and are influenced by images from social media and celebrities, so the strategy to employ a comprehensive range of tactics that ‘speaks’ to this cohort is important in terms of expanding its reach.”

Enforcement with teeth The case in Wales isn’t the only highprofile prosecution, as the cases mount up for trading standards. Last year, Liverpool Magistrates’ Court fined a former reality TV star £11,000 for carrying out illegal tooth whitening procedures, while in Derby courts found a practitioner guilty of the same crime and meted out a fine totalling more than £9,000. The various

Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards

industry bodies hope that the fines and penalties handed out exceed the profits fraudsters make, acting as a deterrent to those who consider breaking the law.

In June, a Belfast-based individual was sentenced to 12 months of probation and given a £1,500 fine after pleading guilty to charges related to the use and supply of tooth whitening products after Belfast City Council found hundreds of gels and syringes in his clinic – many containing 300 times stronger the legal dose of hydrogen peroxide gel.

Given how difficult the practice is to police, industry bodies such as the BDA are advocating educational strategies such as those employed in the Protect Your Smile campaign. By showcasing the risks (the video opens with a graphic images warning) inherent in using unregistered dentists to receive tooth

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

The dangerous levels of hydrogen peroxide contained in illegal tooth whitening kits may put an individual’s health at risk

whitening treatment, the campaign and others like it aim to raise awareness.

“A measure of success is that more people are aware of the potential damage that can be done to their teeth and gums from going to non-dental professionals for teeth whitening and are put off going to fraudsters,” says the BDA spokesperson.

It’s a substantial problem that has grown considerably in recent years.

According to the Oral Health Foundation, the UK tooth whitening industry was worth £40m in 2017. The same nationwide poll found that certain demographics are more likely to have had tooth whitening provided by “illegal, untrained and dangerous providers” – one in four single adults in the UK have undergone teeth whitening treatments, with 45% of those having used illegal, untrained and dangerous providers. Last year, the Official Cosmetics Control Laboratories conducted a study that found that 78% of brush-on whiteners and more than 50% of tray-based tooth whiteners and whitening strips were non-compliant with European Union or national regulations.

The messages in the campaign provide clear warnings of a market that too many fall victim to, and the organisations involved have received acclaim, including an award in the Product Safety Category in the Regulatory Excellence Awards 2019, organised by the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS).

“There are strict laws on who can legally carry out tooth whitening and for good reason as this video shows,” said Richard Graham, the BDA’s chair of the Northern Ireland Dental Practice Committee, following the announcement of the campaign. “If you put yourself in the hands of unqualified people with unknown chemicals you are gambling with your health.” n

| 47

CPPD Module

WORDS BY

By Tim Keohane & Steve Emmett Trading standards officer at Caerphilly CBC Trading Standards and Chartered Trading Standards Practitioner

Continuing Personal Professional Development Module

The systematic improvement of your vocational knowledge and skills – both through expansion and refinement – is absolutely essential in keeping on top of an ever-changing regulatory landscape at this time of restricted resources.

As part of its role leading the trading standards profession the CTSI offers free CPPD modules through its publications.

The Journal of Trading Standards is pleased to offer the latest in the series here.

After reading the article, you can head to the CTSI website to complete the questions (also included on page 50).

More details are included on the following spread.

Successful completion is worth one hour of CPPD.

48 |

CPPD Module 17:

Food allergens This CPPD module is based on a recent case in which a company breached the Food Safety Act by supplying a product which had been contaminated by an allergen. Thanks to the efforts of trading standards officers – including the late Andy MacKay – the company was successfully prosecuted On October 11 this year Zorba Delicacies Ltd of Ebbw Vale, Wales, pleaded guilty to two offences under The Food Safety Act 1990 (selling food not of the nature demanded by the purchaser, S14; and furnishing false or misleading information to officers, S33) and one offence of placing unsafe food on the market, contrary to the provisions of the General Food Regulations 2004.

The company was fined £93,000 and ordered to pay costs to Caerphilly Trading Standards of almost £15,000.

The case began in February 2018 when Hayley Lancaster, who had been diagnosed with severe nut and egg allergies as a child, settled down to watch TV with her favourite snack: a bag of corn chips and a pot of Morrisons tzatziki dip.

After one mouthful she felt the symptoms of anaphylaxis. She was alone at home, but fortunately had her EpiPen to hand and averted tragedy. She was, however, very ill and extremely frightened.

Shortly afterwards she contacted trading standards and indicated that she thought the dip contained egg or nuts. The Morrisons from which she purchased the dip was visited and the sole remaining pot with the same code was procured for analysis.

Both the pot Hayley had purchased and the sample were analysed and found to contain significant amounts of egg, where none should have been present.

Egg – one of the 14 allergens as laid down in Annex II of the EU Food Information for Consumers Regulation (No 1169/2011)

(EU FIC) – has to be prominently indicated on ingredient lists.

Morrisons was contacted, supplied the details of Zorba, the manufacturer of the dip, and conducted its own swift investigations. Trading standards also made initial contact with Zorba and commenced an investigation into how this could have happened.

Breach of procedure Zorba’s early theories centred around the accidental introduction of egg at some point in the production process.

The company suggested it had a robust Allergen Management System and indicated it was subject to third-party audits from Morrisons as well as other major retailers and third-party UKAS auditors, who had awarded it the highest AA+ rating.

A walk around the factory by the investigating officer was undertaken and a plethora of documents were requested, including recipes, training records, procedures, production plans, production records and details of allergen sampling and analysis.

In total Zorba provided 116 documents consisting of thousands of pages, which were laboriously examined, to try to find out where the egg had been introduced into the product and examine whether Zorba had taken all reasonable precautions, had exercised all due diligence and could perhaps satisfy the defence provisions under Section 21 of the Act.

Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards

“The documents presented and the company’s explanation did not ring true”

ill and the prognosis was the worst.

Andy was a passionate officer and completed the investigation before he was forced to retire on grounds of ill health. Knowing that he wouldn’t be around for any trial, he suggested Caerphilly employ a technical expert who could examine the procedures and identify where Zorba had failed.

Accordingly Caerphilly instructed Steve Emmett, a self-employed Chartered Trading Standards Practitioner who has extensive experience in factory auditing, due diligence and allergen management.

It soon became apparent to the lead investigator, Andy MacKay, that the problem appeared to arise from the company’s production schedule, where not only on the day of production of the offending items, but on others too, Zorba was operating in contravention of its own Allergen Management Policy by producing allergen-containing products before non-allergen products on the same line, and that it was apparently not adhering to the appropriate clean-down procedures.

The company was formally interviewed and insisted this was a “one-off” occurrence and the blame was probably down to a single operator who no longer was employed.

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

The documents presented and the company’s explanation did not ring true.

Andy contacted the analysts used by Zorba and obtained certificates indicating that other similar products had also tested positive for egg; this meant that the company had provided false information, which had hindered the investigation.

Furthermore, the ex-employee was located and in his statement indicated that procedures were very poor.

It was now clear that any defences the company threw up could be countered.

Caerphilly was fortunate in that Andy was the Lead Officer for food in Wales, undoubtedly an expert, and able to present evidence as such. Sadly, during the course of the investigation, Andy fell

Deficiencies in the defence Andy had been supplied with two large lever arch files of documents from Zorba’s solicitors which were handed on to Steve, together with witness statements from the complainant, trading standards staff and the ex-employee.

Zorba produced products for most of the major retailers and was certified by an independent inspection company accredited to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) Global Food Safety Standard. It had achieved grade AA+, which means that the audit was unannounced and there had been five or fewer minor non-conformities against the standard.

As a producer for most of the major supermarkets, Zorba was also regularly audited by food technologists from these retailers, many of whom had their own particular requirements in relation to

| 49

CPPD Module

CPPD MODULE 17: FOOD ALLERGENS

Review the 8 questions below, and when you’re ready, submit your answers at tradingstandards.uk/ cppdtest 1. Which were the four main areas identified as being liable to cross contamination?

2. What is the maximum number of non-compliances allowed which would still allow a AA+ BRC Global Food Safety Standard to be awarded?

3. What type of programme is Allergen Management known as?

4. What European Regulations dictate an effective HACCP plan?

5. What are the elements of the statutory defence under the Food Safety Act 1990?

6. Which European Regulation outlines the 14 allergens that have to be declared?

7. One of the charges against the company was for placing unsafe food on the market; which regulations is this offence under?

8. The second charge was under Section 14 of the Food Safety Act 1990, but was the tzatziki dip not of the nature, substance or quality?

Applicants who complete the module successfully will be given a certificate.

The test must be taken by 31 March, 2020.

If you have any questions, please email training@tsi.org.uk Previous module answers are available to members on the Journal of Trading Standards website.

50 |

Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards

KEY THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

The process flow at Zorba showed that there were four major areas where cross contamination could occur: ▪ Mixing bowls ▪ Moving mixing bowls and decanting into a hopper ▪ Pump ▪ Lines to depositors The same lines were used for both allergen-containing products and allergen free products, so it was imperative that Good Manufacturing Processes (GMP) were followed and that effective, verified

cleaning between batches took place.

There were a number of cleaning procedures for the line, all written and signed off by different managers, some dating back to 2013, thus indicating there was no proper oversight of effective line cleaning.

Some verification of the line cleaning had been carried out, but this was inadequate and had missed obvious potential product traps e.g. the pump.

There was no programme of testing of finished products for cross-contamination.

allergen management. Many of these audits would also be unannounced, so on the face of it, with a number of independent audits focusing on food safety, one would expect Zorba to have a very robust system and due diligence defence.

However, on careful examination of the documents it was clear that this was far from the case and the practices operated at Zorba were an accident waiting to happen.

The legal requirement to carry out a risk assessment formally as a HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) stems from EU 178/2002 and more specifically EU 852/2004. Zorba had an adequate HACCP plan but Allergen Management, known as an Operational Prerequisite Program, was not adequate.

Zorba had a policy of producing allergen-free products first, which is an obvious safety measure. However, records showed that this was routinely ignored.

Morrisons had its own policy of allergen management which was in addition to the requirement, but again this was not complied with.

There was a policy for checking cleaning in the mixing room – the taking of contact allergen swabs – but no records of swabbing could be produced and the ex-employee confirmed that no swabbing took place during his time at the company. The response to not keeping records of the cleaning swabs was “no one told us we had to”.

“A number of audits had failed to recognise the obvious failings in the allergen management system” There was the unexplained difference between identically numbered test certificates, one direct from the test house showing the presence of egg, and an identical numbered certificate from Zorba showing the product was egg-free.

What is surprising about this case is that a number of audits from both thirdparty UKAS-approved auditing companies and retailers’ own food technologists had failed to recognise the obvious failings in the allergen management system.

Zorba is a company with an annual turnover of more than £50m, although its accounts show it has made no profit in the past two years. The directors draw £250,000 a year each; this was all taken into account by the District Judge, along with the fact that the company had provided false information to trading standards. In sentencing the company he said that its actions “had the potential for catastrophe”.

Andy MacKay passed away shortly after retiring from his role, but would have been delighted that all his efforts achieved this result. n

| 51

Legal

By Alison Hollis

A powerful tool for

prosecution Fraudulent trading is a useful but often overlooked weapon in the prosecutor’s armoury. But it has its limitations and if used improperly, it can backfire. Alison Hollis looks at the key elements a prosecutor is required to prove for this offence, and how it can be used to best effect There are two offences of fraudulent trading which can be charged. The first is contrary to s.993 of the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006), which can be used to charge incorporated companies and the individuals in control of them. The second is contrary to s.9 of the Fraud Act 2006 (FA 2006), which can be deployed against individuals in cases where there is no corporate entity involved (for example, sole traders). The maximum sentence for both these offences is 10 years’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.

Elements of the offence Both forms of the offence require the following elements to be proved beyond reasonable doubt in order for a conviction to be secured: 1. The defendant must be ‘party to the carrying on of a business’, 2. The business must be being carried out for a fraudulent purpose; and 3. The defendant must have acted dishonestly.

52 |

The term ‘party to the carrying on of a business’ means that the defendant must have an actual role in the running of the business. In cases against sole traders, proving this is likely to be straightforward. However, in prosecutions involving companies, care should be taken to identify the most appropriate defendants. In many large or mediumsized companies, all the directors will be engaged to some extent in the carrying on of the business; but where the fraudulent element of the trading only arises in relation to part of the activities of an otherwise-legitimate business, it is likely that only some directors will be party to the carrying on of the business for the fraudulent purpose.

The term ‘fraudulent purpose’ has been interpreted by the court as connoting an intention to go “beyond the bounds of what ordinary decent people engaged in business would regard as honest” (R v Grantham [1984] 1Q.B. 675; 79 Cr App.R.86 CA); or “involving,

Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

| 53

Legal

By Alison Hollis

according to the current notions of fair trading among commercial men, real moral blame� (Re Patrick & Lyon Ltd [1933] Ch. 786, Ch D, per Maugham J. at p.790).

It is necessary to prove dishonesty as an element of either offence (R v Cox (1982) 75 Cr. App. R. 291). Naivety or poor management will not be sufficient, but an individual (whether a sole trader or controlling mind of a company) who had knowledge of the offence, including one who deliberately shut his eyes to the obvious or refrained from inquiry because he suspected the truth, but did not want to have his suspicion confirmed (Westminster City Council v Croyalgrange Ltd and Another [1986] 83 Cr. App. R. 155).

Dishonesty is often the most difficult element to prove, which leads many authorities to lay charges contrary to the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPUT) as an alternative to fraudulent trading, or causes them to shy away from laying fraudulent trading offences altogether, falling back on the CPUT offences alone.

If there are elements of legitimate trade, can fraudulent trading still be charged? In short, the answer is usually

54 |

Dishonesty is often the most difficult element to prove, which leads many authorities to lay charges contrary to the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008

yes. The business need not be wholly fraudulent; often there will elements of both legitimate and fraudulent trading.

This was the case in two fraudulent trading cases I have recently prosecuted.

R v Everett The case of Everett concerned a builder who was a sole trader. He made representations to a couple that he could construct a two-storey extension to their property and carry out renovations to the existing building for the price of ÂŁ55,000, and within approximately two months.

A contract was duly entered into, and the family moved out of their home in order for the work to be done. After the agreed two-month period had elapsed, Mr Everett asked for an extension of time in order to complete the work. This was agreed. However, he began spending less and less time working on the property, and eventually stopped showing up at all, leaving the property in an unfinished state. Nevertheless, he assured the couple he would be coming back to complete the work. The couple, now concerned about the length of time that had passed and the state of their unfinished property, asked building control to inspect the works. A surveyor found various serious structural

Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards

Fraudulent trading is an extremely useful tool for prosecutors: it is capable of covering in a single offence criminality which may be multifaceted

inadequacies with the work, and the house was deemed unsafe for habitation.

A decision was taken to charge Mr Everett with fraudulent trading, contrary to s.9 FA 2006, with various CPUT offences in the alternative. The basis for the fraudulent trading charge was that Mr Everett had made representations to the consumers in order to get the work, knowing he was not capable of carrying it out. The work he did attempt to carry out was not done with reasonable care and skill, or to the standard of a reasonably competent tradesman. Any one of his failings could have been characterised as a breach of one of the CPUT Regs, but the overall way in which this transaction was carried out was best characterised by fraudulent trading. This had the advantage of drawing together the different strands of his wrongdoing into one charge which a jury would be able to instinctively grasp.

However, the case was not without its challenges. There were no other complaints about his work known to trading standards. He had no previous convictions, cautions, warnings or reprimands. This suggested the remainder of his trade had not been fraudulent. Nonetheless, the evidence

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

in the instant case showed that he was engaging in fraudulent trading.

Mr Everett maintained a not guilty plea to all charges until the day of trial, when he entered a guilty plea on the basis that he did not act dishonestly at the outset in representing that he could do the work (at that time, he held the honest belief that he could). However, as the work progressed it became clear to him that he was not capable of carrying out the work, and dishonestly continued with the work, knowing it was not correct, and took the victims’ money regardless of that fact.

Mr Everett ultimately received a sentence of imprisonment of two years, suspended for two years, and was required to complete 180 hours of unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay compensation to his victims as well as Trading Standards’ costs incurred in bringing the prosecution.

R v David Waters and Anchor Mobility Ltd This was a case involving a company (Anchor Mobility Ltd) which sold recliner chairs and beds to elderly and vulnerable consumers. Some consumers paid in full for these items at the time of order, whilst others paid large sums

as deposits towards them. In many cases, the furniture was never delivered.

The company’s sole director, David Waters, was charged with being party to the carrying on of the business for a fraudulent purpose.

At trial, Mr Waters said that he was not responsible for the day-to-day running of the business; he had put a management team in place who were responsible instead. However, the detailed and extensive evidence gathered by Suffolk Trading Standards demonstrated that he did hold a key role within the company and was instrumental in the fraudulent trading that was carried out by it.

Following a trial lasting nearly four weeks, the jury unanimously found him guilty. At the time of writing this article, he is still awaiting sentence.

This case demonstrates the importance in cases involving companies of evidentially establishing the nexus between the specific individual charged and the fraudulent trading carried on by the company.

Case-by-case basis In the right circumstances, fraudulent trading is an extremely useful tool for prosecutors: it is capable of covering in a single offence criminality which may be multifaceted. This makes it easy for juries to understand and easier for prosecutors to present their case. It can also cover a broad range of types of offending: from those which involve companies set up purely as a sham with no legitimate purpose to legitimate traders who have resorted to elements of illegitimate practice during difficult trading times.

However, if considering this offence, prosecutors must be mindful of the need to prove each of the specific elements and, in corporate cases, to show the nexus between the fraudulent activity and the individual charged. n Alison Hollis is a barrister at Gough Square Chambers, specialising in consumer and regulatory law. For more information visit goughsq.co.uk

| 55

CTSI Symposium 2020

by Karin Layton

All set for Symposium The venue for next year has been carefully chosen and is ready to host CTSI’s best Symposium yet, writes CTSI Events and Communications Executive Karin Layton Did you know the last time CTSI’s annual event went to Southport was in 1971? Let’s pause a moment to reminisce. Arsenal won their first double and ‘Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep’ was dominating the charts.

Edward Heath had just completed his first year as Prime Minister. It was also the year the EEC agreed terms for the UK’s membership proposal and Britain’s monetary system saw its biggest change for more than 1,000 years on Decimal Day. Lest we forget, that year also saw the introduction of The Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971, which came into force in August.

Back in the present, 48 years later, we completed the Southport site visit in August, with the help and input of both the North Eastern branch members and our core Symposium team. We all agreed that Southport Convention Centre is perfect for our flagship event.

The exhibition area, plenary hall and seminar rooms are all on one floor, making it easy to navigate and we are confident that exhibitors, members and delegates will agree.

Outside the venue, Southport boasts a beautiful and expansive coastline. It’s a town rich in history and good enough for Napoléon III, who lived there in exile between 1846 and 1848, before becoming President and subsequently Emperor of France. Southport offers ample eateries and features the largest number of independent restaurants outside London.

It also plays host to some fabulous bars

56 |

and friendly pubs, including trendy gin and whiskey bars. Also, a Peaky Blindersthemed bar is just a stone’s throw away from the venue. Whatever you fancy, you can enjoy it in Southport!

CTSI’s annual event is always the topic of much discussion, not just here at Head Office but also throughout the profession.

It is your event, and the feedback you provide to us afterwards is invaluable as it helps us better understand your needs.

Thank you also to those who shared their thoughts this year, which has led to us making a few tweaks to ensure your experience is the best it can be.

What have we got planned? Status International, the UK’s leading independent supplier of lighting and electrical accessories, continues to be our main sponsor. For the fourth year running trueCall, a UK-based call monitoring service, is sponsoring the notepads.

We are also proud to announce Civica, a global digital solutions provider, will sponsor our Welcome Drinks on Monday night. The team is already planning an

“It is your event, and the feedback you provide to us afterwards is invaluable as it helps us better understand your needs” Winter 2019

Journal of Trading Standards

Main Sponsor

informal eve-of-Symposium event for those who arrive early and are about on Sunday evening.

Plenary preparations have also already commenced, and following the success of this year’s Wednesday session with Tim Harford, we will again host a guest speaker for 2020. We will be asking session holders who have purchased seminars to provide an early indication of the topic and to make the focus more educational.

The booking system and method of obtaining seminar tickets have been keeping us busy and we are aware that our delegates found the process of getting tickets cumbersome this year, hence the need to improve this experience. We are also reviewing our refreshment package following your feedback.

The tabletop exhibition remains a cost-effective way of delivering the event free of charge to our members. The team is looking at ways of widening our audience to provide better networking opportunities for all.

Please look out for further information about the 2020 event through our regular Symposium diaries. ■

www.JournalofTradingStandards.co.uk

Symposium 2021 That’s right, we’re already looking at venues! Choosing the right venue is always a challenge, but Council’s guiding principles have helped us with shortlisting venues for 2021. From 22 venues, 16 have been discounted. Some of the reasons were: ▪ that they are too remote ▪ they don’t have space that flows ▪ there is no on-site accommodation ▪ the exhibition space isn’t big enough ▪ small Seminar rooms ▪ they were cost-prohibitive

Ideas you want to share?

Contact the events team by emailing tsievents@tsi.org.uk or calling 01268 582245

| 57

Last Word

Where would we be without…

Eleni Chalkidou Eleni is Editor-in-Chief at the Journal of Trading Standards and Director of Communications at CTSI

Test purchases are not about trying to catch people out – they are about preventing irresponsible practices that endanger our communities

58 |

test purchases “But mummy, if someone wanted to hurt someone with a knife why don’t they just take one from their kitchen?” Well, Achilles, nobody says they can’t but we also need to make sure shops don’t sell them to kids without checking their age.

How do you explain to a six-year-old the dangers of selling restricted goods to minors?

As this issue’s cover story sets out, agerestricted sales continue to be a hot topic for trading standards. And rightly so. A troubling upsurge in youth-oriented knife crime has pushed the sale of restricted goods – particularly offensive weapons – into the spotlight, with politicians, the police, the media and trading standards all acknowledging that more must be done to stop dangerous goods getting into the hands of young people.

A big part of how trading standards does this is, ironically, by attempting to get dangerous goods into the hands of young people. Or so some critics would describe it. Test purchases rely on young volunteers going into shops and attempting to buy age-restricted products. When the system

works, the retailer asks for ID and, since the volunteer won’t be able to supply it, a sale will be refused. If a retailer fails and makes a sale, they can be subject to enforcement actions.

Test purchasing has always been one of the more controversial aspects of trading standards – when they have been caught out, some retailers have complained that it is unfair, and even that it can resemble entrapment. Trading standards teams have been accused of deliberately picking volunteers who look older than they actually are, or of encouraging volunteers to lie about their age when challenged.

This misses the point though – and it is precisely why test purchases are so important. Without the use of underage volunteers in test purchasing there would be no meaningful enforcement of age-restricted sales. Without test purchasing there would be an unfettered supply of unhealthy and dangerous goods. Teenagers often do look older than they are – and anyone who remembers what it was like to be young knows that youngsters may not always be scrupulously honest. By replicating this in a controlled, supervised way, test purchases place the onus of responsibility firmly where it belongs – upon retailers who have a duty to request proof of age before making a sale. Furthermore, most test purchases are intelligence-led, and are likely to target retailers with an existing track record of underage sales complaints against them.

Test purchases are not about trying to catch people out – they are about preventing irresponsible practices that endanger our communities. A truly responsible retailer would welcome test purchases as a way of ensuring that they and their staff are playing their part.

The positive impact of test purchases is two-fold, as they also involve young people in trading standards’ work. I suspect for many of the youngsters who carry out test purchases, it will be the first time they’ve interacted with trading standards or given any thought to consumer protection. And who knows, it might even inspire them to take up the cause themselves, as it has done with my son (at least for the next 30 minutes until he decides astronauts are much cooler). After all, trading standards is all about safeguarding people, no matter their age. n

Winter 2019

MORE WAYS TO ACCESS News, features and videos www.journaloftradingstandards.co.uk

Email newsletter

Made to Measure podcast

Social Media

Sign up from the homepage at www.journaloftradingstandards.co.uk to receive our regular email updates

Subscribe to the podcast on all major platforms or listen directly from the dedicated podcast page on our website.

Find us on Facebook and LinkedIn, subscribe to our YouTube channel or follow on Twitter: @JTS_editorial

www.journaloftradingstandards.co.uk The magazine of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute

Get Brexit ready!

CTSI’s EU exit portal will provide you with all the need-to-know information surrounding the legislative framework as we prepare to leave the EU. With FREE access for trading standards professionals, this e-learning platform will keep you informed of the changes as Brexit progresses.

FREE, easy and exible access Key introduction course Nine specialist subject areas

CPPD allocation for each course completed

Preparing the trading standards profession as we leave the EU Fair Trading

e-Commerce

Product Safety

Animal Health and Agriculture

Food Standards

Intellectual Property

Travel law

Cross-Border Access to Justice

Legal Metrology

To find out more visit:

www.tradingstandards.uk