CTSI Calls For More Trading Standards Funding

The lack of enforcement wen it comes to `front’ businesses on UK High Streets is something that concerns every insurance brand active in Retail and Commercial/Landlord. Will the government look at increasing funding for enforcement action soon? Here’s the word;

The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) is calling for an urgent injection of funding from Government in next week’s budget to tackle serious and organised crime, and support enforcement agencies, including Trading Standards.  The Institute is concerned that the scale of organised crime on Britain’s High Streets is impacting the UK’s level playing field for business and could jeopardise the Government’s future ambitions to grow the economy.

CTSI is calling for additional funding in the forthcoming budget, and has also set out a series of policy calls for Government to address the issues around organised crime, including:

• Providing long-term, sustainable funding for proven multi-agency initiatives to disrupt SOC, such as “Clear, Hold, Build” and Op Machinize
• Strengthening enforcement powers, such as permitting permanent closure of persistently offending shops
• Improving intelligence sharing between partner agencies

The threat posed by organised crime is undercutting legitimate businesses and depriving the Exchequer of much needed tax receipts to help fund public services. Such is the risk that SOC poses to the public and legitimate businesses, that the Trading Standards profession has identified organised criminality on UK High Streets as their number one threat.

John Herriman, Chief Executive at CTSI, said “Serious and organised crime is a persistent blight on our high streets and communities up and down the country. Our Trading Standards profession has highlighted the issue as the most serious threat to the legitimate businesses and consumers they protect. Such criminals do not care about the harm they cause, so long as they make a profit.”

“Given the Government’s commitment to economic growth, we are concerned that the growth in organised criminality is undercutting law abiding business and depriving the Exchequer of much needed funding to support public services.  Enforcement agencies, involved in disrupting organised criminality, including the police, National Crime Agency and Trading Standards need greater resources to address the threat posed to UK consumers and law-abiding businesses.

A recent spotlight on the issue of shop “fronts” has highlighted the scale of organised criminality on UK high streets, involving complex networks of distribution, storage, and retail of illegal goods in high street shops. Such “fronts” are becoming an increasing issue for the UK’s Trading Standards workforce and are a scourge of the high street, sometimes used as a front for serious and organised crime activities such as Modern Day Slavery and human trafficking, distribution of weapons and drugs, money laundering, and the sale and supply of illegal and unsafe products such as counterfeit goods and illegal vapes and tobacco, to fund criminal lifestyles and other criminal activities.”