Since our last conference in Brighton, we have had a year of extraordinary changes in the Trading Standards area. Some of the themes of prospective government policy that we had to deal with at Brighton have changed almost beyond recognition. I have seen the fast footwork that has been necessary at all levels to keep up with the new challenges.
TSI, through its impressive framework of Lead Officers, Branches, Sections and Head Office has responded to 55 consultation initiatives form Government over the past 12 months. And there were many more to which we had to give consideration before deciding not to take up.
Consumer Voice, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Energy Efficiency, Avian Flu, Waste Strategy, Food Traffic Lights, the Green Paper on Healthy Diets and Physical Activity, the Davidson Review on UK implementation of EU legislation, the Macrory Review of Regulatory Justice, Comprehensive Performance Assessment for local government in England – and so the list goes on. There have been a remarkable number of both central and local Government priorities which are relevant to us, and also dependent on Trading Standards.
The continuing development of the Hampton Report, Burdens on Business, OFT Plus, the Local Better Regulation Office, Respect, Crime and Disorder have given us plenty of initiatives for new action.
One look at the programme for this Conference shows the breadth of Trading Standards and TSI in 2006. Champions of consumers and business alike, centrepiece to the economic, health and social wellbeing of the country, Trading Standards is today an essential part of modern society. The theme for Conference “Better Regulation Better Protection” captures the commitment that TSI and Trading Standards bring to the important, but sometimes difficult, business/consumer balance. That is our strength and is recognised both by the general public and the business community.
TSI has been a strong advocate for the reforms put forward by Philip Hampton and Better Regulation agendas. We worked hard on what in the end was the short lived Consumer and Trading Standards Agency. We welcome the new developments that we have seen in recent months of Local Better Regulation Office and the Office of Fair Trading Plus. Trading Standards and Local Authorities must be innovative, adaptable and accessible if they are to succeed. Those of you at the front line have to be responsive to consumer and business needs alike. Trading Standards is there to bring rogues to task, but also to help sound businesses flourish. Reducing unnecessary burdens has widespread political support, but we have to be clear in our message to business and Government alike that inspection is not a sanction. Productive Trading Standards and Environmental Health inspections are a cornerstone of productive enterprise.
We will support the DTI and others in securing the added value that the LBRO must bring to the regulatory table and I would wish to place on record my thanks to the Ministers and officials alike for engaging TSI so positively.
We shall also support our friends at the OFT as they look to progress the new and extended role of the OFT Plus. Philip Collins and John Fingleton have kept us up to speed with their thinking, and have also enaged us in the policy development. TSI exists to be a champion of trading standards, but the OFT Plus can add so much as a champion of the Trading Standards Service in government. The OFT Annual Plan and the OFT Trading Standards Action Plan already show the OFT commitment to partner and champion Trading Standards.
Ownership of Consumer Direct has moved from DTI to the OFT over this past year. TSI has been a strong and consistent advocate of Consumer Direct from its very inception. With Trading Standards at its heart Consumer Direct is now open for business across Great Britain; and I would use this opportunity to congratulate all of those involved in setting up the 11 Contact Centres in England, Wales and Scotland. We are well past the first 1 million callers mark. I am delighted that all those consumer advice professionals operating Consumer Direct are now members of the Institute. Consumer Direct is tangible evidence of what Trading Standards, local Government and the OFT and Government can achieve together. A genuine partnership service delivered free to consumers and to the benefit of good business.
Consumer Direct should now go from strength to strength. TSI is resolved to see Trading Standards remain at its heart. We welcome the challenge of the Government’s “Consumer Voice” proposals where Consumer Direct will be the consumer gateway to important utilities and financial services. We want to see the case for Consumer Direct delivering up to, and then beyond the current 2010 funding commitment.
On the matter of transfer of ownership I was absolutely delighted to see TSI entering the contest to win ownership of the eTrading Standards National eGov project from the then Office of the Deputy Prime Minister – and winning! Access to reliable intelligence is essential to the success of Trading Standards in targeting its ever scarcer resources effectively. eTSN, together with the Consumer Direct database and others, provides the model for the future. The DTI/OFT sponsored Scambuster teams and regional Trading Standards intelligence hubs are the way forward and need a fully subscribed eTSN to support their effect and impact. As do the LBRO, OFT Plus and local authority Regulatory Services more broadly.
I am pleased to be able to share this platform with our main Conference sponsors Marks and Spencer – thank you once again for your support Anthony and congratulations on the reinvigorated M&S success – with Neil Turner MP who has so kindly supported this Conference for Ian McCartney – and with Councillor Geoffrey Theobald the Chair of our special friends Lacors.
Geoffrey, you, Derek Allen, Wendy Martin and all at Lacors have taken that local government central body to new levels of success. I have watched your extending remit – and budget - with interest and admiration. Your role in co-ordinating, improving and supporting local authority Regulatory Services is perhaps more essential than has ever been the case. Hampton, LBRO, the Retail Enforcement Pilot and more all require a well focused Lacors as well as best performing Trading Standards and other Regulatory Services. TSI and Lacors enjoy a special relationship and I look forward to our next Year Ahead Conference in Stratford upon Avon in February 2007.
And local government needs a strong Lacors. As a country, we still need to resolve the role of local government, its financing and its structure. 21st century UK needs a better central/local government balance, and a partnership that serves the nation better. We at TSI await the December report of Sir Michael Lyons. He has extended his remit beyond local government funding to include the functions of local government. He has said that he is taking " a coherent look at the wider issues in local government, which has the potential not only to improve services and public understanding, but to improve the vitality of communities and their ability to determine their own future."
Trading Standards has to move forward in a similar coherent way. It has to be a co-ordinated blend of local/regional and central if it is to play its full part in helping meet the demands of local communities and the nation. This is the Vision for Trading Standards that TSI will continue to advocate. Few will feel great enthusiasm for another round of local government restructuring, but there has to be the appetite, locally and centrally, for greater collaboration and proper equitable funding of services. Local authorities, and certainly local Trading Standards authorities, cannot operate in isolation, and I congratulate local government politicians and officers, who have helped to develop collaborative models for Trading Standards both regionally and otherwise. The Trading Standards Regions in England and the parallel Scotland and Wales nation groups not only form the basis for Consumer Direct but also provide a model way forward for the efficient and effective deployment of scarce Trading Standards resource. The Regional Co-ordination mechanisms have brought a new dimension to higher performance collaborative Trading Standards. We hope these mechanisms live beyond the current DTI/OFT funding packages.
The long awaited Local government White Paper and the Lyons Report have to lead to new and more effective ways of financing local government and bring some stability to an unstable and unsatisfactory model. Trading Standards, Environmental Health and other small local authority Regulatory Services cannot compete with the big services of local government either for attention or money. Each delayering of internal service structures, each reduction in funding damages Trading Standards and small services are affected in a disproportionate way. TSI is an advocate for local government but local authorities have to collectively do better in investing in their Trading Standards Service. To do otherwise will strengthen the case of those who might argue for all or part of the Service positioned elsewhere. Whether in England, Scotland or Wales TSI will support every local government effort to resolve to deliver high performing Trading Standards.
The new licensing responsibilities of local authorities have already helped illustrate the value of Trading Standards to licensing decisions and to the wider purpose of local authority licensing. The third Alcohol Misuse Enforcement Campaign last Christmas saw the police and Trading Standards professionals carry out 6000 test purchase operations and deal with 30,000 offences. They discovered nearly a fifth of off licence sales were to under age minors. Local communities want to see safer communities, and this means reducing under-age drinking. We can help to prevent supermarkets and other off licence selling alcohol or other age related products to under age young people.
Local and central government, people and businesses need a Trading Standards professional workforce equipped and funded to deal with the complex range of challenges in 21st century UK. I have been delighted to see the success of TSI in being bold and brave enough to completely remodel its qualifications and training products. Already over 500 aspiring recruits and professionals have registered into the new TSI competency and professional development framework. Their success will be the key to a modern Trading Standards Service and contribute to making the UK a better, healthier, safer and more prosperous place to live and do business.
This has been an extraordinary year of change and challenge, and there is more to come. I congratulate every one of the 3,000 Trading Standards member professionals of TSI for their diligence, wonderful enthusiasm and sheer professionalism in delivering Trading Standards in the public and private sectors.
And my thanks on behalf of TSI to all of you for once again supporting the TSI Conference and Exhibition here at ExCeL.
Chairman, colleague speakers, ladies and gentlemen, thank you and enjoy Conference.