Accounts Commission Report on Trading Standards Departments

That the Parliament welcomes the publication by the Accounts Commission of Made to measure? An overview of trading standards in Scotland, which assesses the performance of the 32 trading standards departments across Scotland; notes that this valuable and socially important service spends £19 million each year on providing regulatory and enforcement services to the business community and advice to consumers in Scotland; expresses its concern, however, at some of the findings of the report that suggest that there are "wide variations" in the levels of services delivered to consumers and businesses across Scotland with at least one quarter of trading standards departments not meeting the minimum standards of service they are required to meet; further notes the wide variations in the designation of premises liable for inspection by trading standards services which suggests "that similar types of premises are being under- or over-inspected, resulting in available resources not being used to best effect and traders not being treated consistently", and calls on the Scottish Executive to take action to ensure greater consistency in enforcement activity by trading standards services across Scotland consistent with best practice, as manifested in the enforcement concordat, in the interests of both consumers and the business community.