Trading Standards and Consumer Protection

The responsibility for trading standards is vested in the County and Metropolitan District Councils and in the London Boroughs. Departments may be called either Departments of Trading Standards or of Consumer Protection. Either way they grew out of the old Weights and Measures Departments. Inspectors still check that the weights and measures used in the manufacture and sales of goods are accurate but the primacy of this activity has given way before a great increase in responsibilities which have resulted from further legislation designed not only to protect consumers but to help them spend their money wisely. Departments now enforce legislation under the Weights and Measures Act, and Food and Drugs Act, the Trades Description Act, the Consumer Credit Act.

Trading Standards Officers spend 70% of the working day out of the office. After the first hour or so dealing with correspondence, they are off on their round. Some calls might involve checking weighing machines in retail shops, or pumps at petrol stations. Whilst there they might check to see that the petrol prices conformed to recent legislation about the need to quote the official and reduced price. After that there might be a series of complaints about inaccurate labelling of goods or misleading advertising to investigate. The job involves not merely detecting an offence but advising a trader whose practice may be a result of ignorance rather than intent to deceive. Only in the last resort might Inspectors recommend prosecution. If this happens they will have to appear in court as a witness, having briefed solicitors on the authority's case. At the end of the day they will be back in the office to write up reports on their visits.

Several authorities have set up Consumer Advice Centres which offer both pre-shopping advice - what to buy, how to assess alternatives - and help if things are faulty. However, as the Government has withdrawn grant aid for these, quite a number have been closed down. The authorities also run educational programmes for schools and women's groups.

Officers working in Trading Standards must be able to get on well with a wide range of people, while at the same time being prepared to see themselves as people enforcing the law; they may have to face unpopularity.

This is a relatively new field for graduates but the complexities and extent of new legislation have meant that local authorities are looking for a higher calibre of recruit than in the past. Entry requirements are a minimum of two 'A' levels and five 'O' levels, which must include English, mathematics and physics. There are some 80 training places available annually and of these at least three quarters are filled by graduates. A number of authorities now recruit graduates only. A degree in engineering, science or law is often specified but other degrees are considered. Training for the Diploma in Trading Standards is by block release at one of three centres (London, Manchester and Weston-super-Mare), coupled with directed practical in-service experience. It takes about three years to qualify.

Entrants are usually paid on a Local Government trainee scale, and the salary would depend upon age and qualifications; most authorities provide an advancement following successful completion of the Part I examination. On qualification, the most representative grade is 5/6/SO1.

Currently, the number of vacancies exceeds the numbers being trained, although the situation is complicated by the fact that, due to financial constraints, some posts are being left unfilled. There are, nationally, more qualified staff employed in grades above that of the initially appointed inspector, and in fact the number at divisional inspector level or above represents over one third of the service, so promotion prospects are very good. A Chief Officer post would attract a salary of over £21,000.

Words to remember:

APPENDIX I

Scotland and Northern Ireland

a) Scotland

Reorganisation of local government in Scotland took effect in 1975. The structure consists of a two-tiered system of 9 regions, 53 districts and 3 most-purpose island area councils. The recruitment of graduates into the professional ranks of local authority service in Scotland is, generally speaking, a well established practice. Recruitment to administrative posts and some of the newer functional areas has been less developed and publicised than in England, though the whole range of posts and the salaries which they attract, are very similar to those south of the border. The table shows the allocation of the main functions between different types of authority.

* exercised by either the regional or the district authorities

+ except in Highland, Dumfries & Galloway and Border regions where the function is regional.

b) Northern Ireland

Many of the functions of an English local authority are for historical and geographical reasons distributed between a reasonably autonomous Northern Ireland Civil Service, several public boards and 26 District Councils. The main departments in the Northern Ireland Civil Service are

Finance and Personnel

Health and Social Service

Education

Agriculture

Environment

Economic Development

These departments recruit a variety of technical and specialist staffs as the need arises. These may include graduates in agriculture, architecture, engineering, science, law, economics, planning etc. There are normally annual competitions for recruitment to the grades of Administration Trainee, Executive Officer, Clerical Officer and Computer Programmer or Trainee.

The Department of Education has overall responsibility for the development of primary, secondary, further and higher education; the arts and libraries; youth services; teacher training; teacher's salaries and superannuation; sport recreation and community services and facilities.

Five area education and library boards are responsible for the provision of education, library and youth services and for the recruitment of staff to these services.

The Department of Health and Social Services is responsible for hospital and family practitioner services, school health, child health, child care and adoption, services for the elderly and for the handicapped. Four Health and Social Services Boards administer these services at local level.

The Nl Staffs Council for the Health and Social Services administers schemes for the recruitment of General Administration Trainees, Finance Trainees and Catering and Domestic Services Management Trainees.

The Department of the Environment is responsible for the construction and maintenance of roads and bridges, provision of water and sewerage facilities, and is the sole planning authority for Northern Ireland. The Department is also responsible for the matters of transport and traffic, country parks, nature reserves and areas of outstanding natural beauty, pollution control, environmental public health, street lighting and Fire Service (through the Fire Authority).

The Northern Ireland Fire Authority provides a Fire Service for Northern Ireland but like its counterparts in Great Britain has no specifically graduate scheme of recruitment.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 1077