Government launches National Trading Standards Board, but Which? cries foul

The Government is to launch a new National Trading Standards Board (NTSB) to “prioritise, fund and coordinate” national and regional enforcement cases.

The move is part of a package of reforms that has also seen the launch by Citizens Advice on 2 April of a new advice line succeeding Consumer Direct. Citizens Advice will also take on responsiblility for representing consumers’ interests in unregulated sectors, replacing Consumer Focus.

Comprising representatives of Trading Standards from England and Wales, the NTSB will gather intelligence to combat rogue traders. It will also tackle problems such as internet scams, illegal money lending and other enforcement issues that go beyond local authority boundaries. 



Consumer Affairs Minister Norman Lamb said there would be clearer responsibilities and better coordination between enforcers and consumer bodies.

He added: "A new National Trading Standards Board is exactly what we need to combat priority areas such as loan sharks and internet scams.”

The minister also claimed that people had been faced with an array of different bodies for advice and support, and that it was not always clear who they should turn to first.

He said: “The Citizens Advice service will become the publicly-funded voice of consumers, championing their needs and empowering them to make the right choices for themselves.”

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills also reported that the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities had set up a task group to look at how best to deliver the landscape changes in Scotland in both the short and long-term.

But campaign group Which? claimed the Government’s changes would leave consumers “vulnerable to rip-offs”. It warned that local trading standards and Citizens Advice were already “over-stretched and under-resourced”.

Which? said: “Under [these] changes, local trading standards, more used to tackling street markets and rogue plumbers, will be required to do the majority of consumer law enforcement work and will be expected take on powerful national and international companies, putting considerable extra strain on local authority Trading Standards services at a time when councils are slashing their budgets and trading standards officers are being made redundant across the country.”

The campaign group also argued that the £10.5m handed to the NTSB was not increased funding, as ministers claimed, but was money simply redirected from current Office of Fair Trading enforcement money.

It also suggested that the OFT was being downgraded and merged with the Competition Commission to form the Competition and Markets Authority.

Which? chief executive, Peter Vicary-Smith, said: “This is a shockingly ill-conceived and under-resourced plan from the Government that looks set to vandalise a system of consumer protection that is admired worldwide at a time when people most need protection.



“Today the Government is giving with one hand and taking with the other. They seem intent on wasting millions of taxpayer pounds restructuring quangos and piling pressure on those who are already overstretched on the frontline. Giving OFT responsibilities to local Trading Standards officers and the Citizens Advice is like asking GPs to carry out heart surgery.”