Cuts to trading standards have "chilling effect" on prosecution of offenders

One complex Crown Court case a year would be beyond the resources of some councils’ trading standards teams, following severe cuts to spending, the Chartered Trading Standards Institute has warned.

The CTSI said that spending by councils on trading standards services had fallen to the equivalent of £1.99 per person, per year.

The service was understaffed, it claimed, with the number of officers having fallen by 53% since 2009, during which the total spend has dropped from £213m to £124m.

CTSI chief executive Leon Livermore said: “We have a situation where trading standards teams in local councils are tasked with holding multi-million-pound firms to account, with just a handful of staff.”

The CTSI said legal experts had warned it that the scale of cuts would have a chilling effect on the willingness of councils to take on larger, well-funded offenders.

Barrister Jonathan Goulding, of Gough Square Chambers, who works closely with trading standards teams, told the institute: “Sometimes, it is the choice between a substantial case against a nationwide business or a number of smaller cases against local – including rogue – traders.

“In addition, those prosecutions that are started are much more likely to be resolved with, for example, a caution than would have been the case 10 years ago.”