The Future of Trading Standards in Scotland

That the Parliament notes the concerns expressed by trading standards bodies regarding the recruitment pressures facing the profession; understands that trading standards officers in local authorities advise on and enforce laws that govern how people buy, sell, rent and hire goods and services; notes warnings from the Scottish branch of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) over the future of what it considers to be a critical service, with, it understands, fewer than 239 enforcement staff in Scotland, little capacity to train new recruits, and more than half of the profession set to retire over the next 10 years; acknowledges the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTSS) biennial workforce survey report 2021, which highlights ongoing concerns around severely reduced staff numbers, and that recruitment pressures will have a detrimental impact on trading standards enforcement; further acknowledges what it sees as the important distinction between Trading Standards Scotland (TSS) and Local Authority Trading Standards (LATS), where LATS are local authority services responsible for enforcing the full range of trading standards legislation and TSS is a standalone, specialist team employed by COSLA, but funded directly by HM Treasury and the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS); considers that TSS deals with illegal money lending casework, cross-border scams, and intelligence gathering and analysis, and, although the organisations work closely, TSS is not subject to local authority control; believes that trading standards officers play an essential role in areas such as consumer protection, public safety, the economy, and the environment, by ensuring that the things that people buy are safe, are in the correct amounts, are as described, that the price displays are fair, and that consumer scams are investigated and combatted; further believes that trading standards officers played a key role during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that they will have an increasing role in the post-Brexit trading environment, both domestically and keeping pace with international import regulations, and commends the work of trading standards officers who work to keep businesses and consumers informed and protected, including in the Motherwell and Wishaw constituency.