I attend my first event as TSI chief executive in the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday. It was an All Party Parliamentary Group organised by the Citizens Advice. These are reasonably informal meetings designed to help MPs and other understand the background to some of the key issues of the day. Not only was this one attended by MPs but also representatives of business and consumer groups. The focus of this meeting was the proposed changes to consumer rights and what that might mean. Colleagues from BIS, CAB and Which? gave the back ground to the changes and the perspectives from their organisations perspective. My role was to provide some context from a regulator’s point of view.
Anything that provides clarity in relation to consumer rights is to be welcomed and should help both consumers and businesses to understand their obligations. The proposals contain a number of implications for local trading standards services. Easing our ability to tackle cross board offences and authorisations is a must in the new landscape. Consolidating our powers in a single set of powers can bring benefits as long as they are not diluted, especially with regards giving notice of entry. Whilst the duty to give notice won’t impact on the vast majority of inspections – after all our first response to non-compliance is often to provide advice and give a period of time to correct issues – the ability to undertake unannounced visits does make businesses think twice about committing fraud. As my old colleague Doug would remind me – “the uninspected deteriorates” (org. Dwight D Eisenhower)
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