Trading standards must stay within local government control, if they are to remain a valued and respected service, with minimum bureaucracy, argues Cllr Geoffrey Theobald We all know local authority regulatory services are often hidden from public view. And yet, communities need protection. People don’t expect to be ripped-off, or injured by unsafe products. They do presume to get a full litre of petrol if they are paying for it, and that their children will not be sold weapons, cigarettes or alcohol. They assume their food will be safe, and that they will be protected from foot-and-mouth disease and avian flu. And if a person is running a business, they expect to be able to trade in a fair and competitive marketplace... All of these assumptions often run in the opposite direction from media and governmental criticism of red tape. But they are what people expect, and are key to central and local governments’ health, crime and economic agenda. Trading standards is a small service in local government terms, particularly in the funding it gets, compared with the larger areas, such as education and social care. However, trading standards is undoubtedly important in providing protection to consumers, the public and good businesses. There is a view in some quarters that trading standards services would be delivered more effectively, if they were taken out of local government control. The Department of Trade and Industry, (DTI) plans to set up the Local Better Regulation Office (LBRO) to explore ways to improve the co-ordination and consistency of local authority regulatory services. The LBRO’s aim is to reduce the burden on businesses and ensure local authorities are all following the same approach. While LACORS has been supportive of the principles behind the proposed LBRO, we are not yet convinced there is a strong enough argument to establish it. The LBRO must add value and not more bureaucracy. It should operate at a more strategic level, with limited intervention powers. It must also work in partnership with local government through local authority associations and its representative bodies, of which LACORS is the principal one. We will work together with the DTI to ensure we have input into what the LBRO will finally look like. The LBRO needs to focus on getting government departments to join up and prioritise their demands on local authority regulatory services. But these demands must be fewer in number, more strategic and fit in with previously agreed priorities. They must allow local authorities to focus on the demands of their communities and avoid a one-size fits all approach. What we do not need is another level of bureaucracy which adds more reporting and control burdens to local government. At LACORS, we accept there is a need for local authority regulatory services to improve, but we also know there is a huge amount of excellent work going on. It is our role to promote, cascade and champion this. In order to develop things further, LACORS is undertaking a significant piece of work with the Tavistock Institute to explore the drivers and barriers to good-quality regulatory services. Early indications of the local government White Paper are that the focus will be on more local and less central control. It seems odd that on one level, we have a more localised agenda, yet when it comes to regulatory services, the Government would prefer it to be more centralised. Local authorities know the needs of their communities. A rural area cannot be compared with an urban one, and life in the north of England is different from the South East. A prescriptive service for all local authorities, dictated in the corridors of Whitehall, will not work. For trading standards to remain a valued and respected service, they must stay with local government. n Cllr Geoffrey Theobald is chairman of LACORS
