Hertfordshire CC has warned that new legislation to cut red tape will simply double the workload of busy trading standards departments. Hertfordshire trading standards department has made a written submission to the Commons committee stage of the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill, setting out concerns at plans that would change it from a ‘home' authority to a ‘primary' authority. Guy Pratt, Hertfordshire's head of trading standards, said: ‘We are currently the home authority for some of the largest businesses in the UK, including Tesco, the Dixons Group, Comet, Mothercare, Nissan, T Mobile and Orange/ Wanadoo, which already places huge demand on our services. ‘If we were to become primary authority for these huge businesses, it would effectively mean that any trading standards department in the UK deciding to take enforcement action against one of them would have to come through us. ‘That is a huge extra burden which would at least double our workload. ‘We could only cope if we were given the funding to pay for more staff and resources, which is not a suggestion on the table as yet,' he said.