trading standards (1)

The NAO has just published a report examining the system protecting consumers from scams, unfair trading, and unsafe goods, which is the responsibility of BEIS (Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy). Although improvements have been implemented since the last NAO report in 2012 such as the setting up of National Trading Standards, there have been significant cuts in the number of full time staff and budgets. Overall, local Trading Standards have lost 56% of full-time equivalent staff since 2009, with 20 services in England having funding cut by over 60% since 2011. This is has increased the risk of consumers being the subject of fraud both in consumer goods and food.

Report available at: NAO report on protecting consumers

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