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About Us  People
are often surprised that their local Council provides Trading Standards but this
enables us to be responsive to the needs of local businesses and the South Ayrshire
community. We are part of Legal and Protective Services that also includes Legal
and Licensing, Environmental Health and Corporate Safety.
What Do
You Do?
We provide a consumer, business
and money advice service. We enforce a wide range of
legislation designed to protect consumers and legitimate
businesses from illegal, unfair and deceptive trading practices. Our day-to-day
activities affect the lives of every person within South Ayrshire - often without
him or her even being aware of it! The safety of the goods we buy, their
price, weight or quantity, the truthfulness of how they are described, the information
we receive if we buy on credit or pay by methods other than cash, protection from
scams, unfair trading practices, dodgy dealers, itinerant traders or cowboy workmen
- the list goes on. All of these aspects to living in a consumer society are the
responsibility of the Trading Standards Service.
We are a statutory function
(i.e. the Council is under a legal duty to provide this service) and in general
terms our aim is to achieve a fair and safe trading environment for those who
live, work and visit South Ayrshire. However, the remit of Trading Standards
is dynamic, constantly changing and adapting as the trading environment changes.
Just as legitimate businesses now see the Internet as an important part of their
market, so do the crooks, counterfeiters, scammers and con merchants. The 'global
marketplace' is now a reality. Residents of South Ayrshire are now able to buy
music CDs from Hong Kong with the same ease as ordering as the weekly shopping
from their local supermarket.
How Many Staff Do You Have?
We
have 21 full time equivalent staff, comprising a Manager, 2 Senior Trading Standards
Officers, 3 Trading Standards Officers, 4 Enforcement Officers, an Advice Team
Leader, 8 advisors (dealing with consumer advice, money advice and debt counselling)
and an admin team of 2. How much does it cost to run Trading Standards?
Our
annual budget is around £830,000, 78% of which is staff costs. Other main
areas of expenditure are training, test purchasing and testing of goods (such
as dangerous furniture or toys) and funding of the labs and calibration facilities.
How
Well Do You Perform?
In an average year our advice team deals with
5,000 complaints and enquiries, recovering around a million pounds in refunds,
replacements and compensation on everything from clothes to conservatories, haircuts
to home improvements.
We deal with between 15,000 and 20,000 calls a year
and around 2,000 personal callers. Our enforcement team on average seizes
tens of thousands of pounds of fake, unsafe or illegal goods as well as advising
hundreds of legitimate businesses on the legal requirements they must comply with.
Advisors also help over a thousand clients a year with their debt problems
by maximising their income and negotiating sustainable payments with creditors. South
Ayrshire Trading Standards consistently scores amongst the best in Scotland in
independent audits and is often cited as a Best Practice Authority, winning industry
awards. We have received the Quality Mark Scotland for
our advice services, one of the first in Scotland to achieve this. In 2005 we
were nominated for a COSLA Excellence Award and then won a Trading Standards Institute
National Media Award for our work with BBC Scotland on 'The Enforcers' TV series.
If
you have any comments on the work that we carry out or would like to suggest other
initiatives that we should undertake please contact us.
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