Baroness Crawley
Main Page: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)Local Authorities: Regulatory Services
Baroness Crawley Excerpts
Baroness Crawley
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to ensure that local regulatory services, including trading standards and environmental health, are fit for purpose, in the light of recent cuts to those services.
Baroness Crawley
My Lords, this is an unashamed shout-out for those local services that protect our citizens across the country and that promote legitimate businesses at a time when economic growth is not only desirable but essential.
Why do these regulatory services need our advocacy? Their strong focus on prevention can make them less visible than other public services. As one environmental health officer told a recent UNISON survey, our success is that nothing happens, meaning that nothing bad happens. However, it takes a considerably robust infrastructure to maintain that status quo. Those Peers who have glanced at the title of this debate and thought, “Ooh, that sounds dull,” will wish that they were here and will probably say that they were here, to misquote Shakespeare, because this is a story of disease and pestilence and contagion; it is a narrative of small-time scams and mis-selling, of international-scale fraud, of injustice and of heartbreak for those caught up in it all.
I see that the Minister is from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and I welcome him to our debate. While I have very cordial relations with his department through my involvement in trading standards, many of the points that I make this afternoon will also be directed at his colleagues at the Department for Communities and Local Government. However, as I was frequently told when I sat where he is sitting now, at the Dispatch Box you speak for the whole Government, as I am sure he is well aware.
Environmental health might include food safety, health and safety at work, environmental protection, public health nuisances, private sector housing and, of course, licensing. Trading standards might include business advice, fair trading, product safety, under-age sales, weights and measures, food standards and farm animal health and welfare. These services are under crippling pressure, as never before. Will the Minister explain how these services will be fit for purpose into the future, given the hit that they have taken under the austerity agenda and given yesterday’s spending review announcement of a further 10% reduction in local government spending? I ask the question as president of the Trading Standards Institute and as a firm believer in our local public services being an anchor of our democracy.
I thank all noble Lords for taking part in this debate. I am particularly happy to see the noble Baroness, Lady Seccombe, in her place, an esteemed vice-president of the Trading Standards Institute, as I am to see my noble friend Lord Harris of Haringey, who chairs the recently established National Trading Standards Board.
There are two key pillars for an effective regulatory system. The first is that the system is underpinned by well constructed legal instruments. The second is that the enforcement of such a system is well resourced. I will deal with the resource issue first. A well resourced regulatory system brings about significant benefits to society. A cut to trading standards and environmental health is a cut to community health, a barrier to preventing crime, a boost to fraudsters and a shot in the arm for those who distort our economy and make it extremely difficult for honest enterprises to survive. In a survey by UNISON of more than 300 trading standards officers carried out in the last few years, over 95% of respondents said that they now had fewer staff, three-quarters said that they now undertake fewer inspections, 70% said that they had stopped providing some services altogether, 70% said that they did less preventive work and half said that they were less equipped to deal with new forms of scams in our digital age. That is hardly the picture of a healthy regulatory system. In addition, it is estimated that UK consumers spend 59 million hours a year trying to resolve disputes with traders, which costs our economy more than £3 billion a year. As the Audit Commission and Audit Scotland said in their 2013 report:
“The long-term viability of councils’ trading standards services is under threat and urgent action is needed to strengthen protection for consumers”.
As well as the day-to-day running of the service, there are the emergencies—those dreadful, nasty surprises such as the horsemeat scandal. The food industry was shaken to its core earlier this year by the adulteration of meat products. Members of the public, as well as Parliament, were calling for more resources, more sampling and for the service to carry out more unannounced checks. How will the Government avert a future adulteration of the food chain and how do they intend to strengthen our enforcement procedures? Is the Minister satisfied with the welcome but very modest budget set aside by BIS for kick-starting the additional work that trading standards has taken on in the new consumer landscape? I declare an interest as chair of the Consumer Codes Approval Board. Do the Government believe that the balance between local and national funding of trading standards is the right one?
While I have so far concentrated on trading standards, the story of our environmental health services—they, too, go back to Victorian times—is very much the same. UNISON’s 2012 survey of 4,000 environmental health officers found reports of increases in pest infestation, landlords cutting corners, poorer housing conditions, overcrowding and increases in disease. Using DCLG’s own departmental figures, we can compare spending for 2012-13 with the actual spending in 2010-11. We see the following very worrying changes. There are falls in spending of 8% on food safety, 6% on private rented housing standards, 28% on pest control, 14% on health and safety and 47% on port health—the officers at ports of entry monitoring possible contamination of food and so on following events such as the Fukushima nuclear incident in Japan. Moreover, 31% less was spent on animal health and infectious disease control. How do we deal with the next major incident of Legionnaires’ disease—or more importantly prevent it—with these figures in our heads?
At the start of my contribution, I suggested that two key pillars underpin our work in regulatory services: adequate resources and effective legal instruments. I wonder how the draft consumer rights Bill, much of which I welcome, can put forward a proposal to insist legally that trading standards officers give two days’ written notice before many inspections can be carried out. What self-respecting fraudster is likely to leave evidence on their premises when they know that there is going to be a visit from the trading standards officer? I would be interested in the Minister’s view.
In conclusion, some would say, perhaps indeed the Minister will, that the answer to saving these invaluable services in a time of unprecedented austerity is through reorganisation—maybe sharing organisational boundaries, having a regional solution instead of a local one, better procurement or outsourcing privately. While I am not opposed to many of these measures—indeed, some are simply common sense, and I welcome them —they are already being undertaken and they have their problems as well as their solutions. There is a big question mark over the ability of reorganisation alone to make up the shortfall in spending on these vital services. The accountability to our citizens that local government gives our regulatory services has long been a part of our democracy and I am sure that we would all want that to continue despite the times we are living through.
Lord Popat
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have participated in this important and timely short debate—and I am pleased to respond to it. I begin by commending trading standards, environmental health and other local authority officers who, day to day, protect us. Their hard work ensures that we get accurate measures at the petrol pump and bar, and buy food that is fit for human consumption. Such effective regulation affords us a good quality of life and the Government value the hard work of those public servants.
The Government have taken major steps to reform the consumer landscape since 2012. These reforms will improve consumer protection. There will be clearer responsibilities and better co-ordination between consumer bodies and enforcers. Through the recalibration of the OFT and trading standards enforcement responsibilities, we have taken measures to close the enforcement gap without spending extra money. Consumers will benefit from the strengthened protection available to them. That is why in April 2012 we created a new National Trading Standards Board, while similar arrangements are taking shape in Scotland. This is making sure that local trading standards offices can work together and enforce the law across the country—something that was not easy to do before. I also congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Harris, on his recent appointment as chair of the National Trading Standards Board. It has had a tremendous first year and will go from strength to strength under his leadership.
Alongside this, in April 2013 the Citizens Advice service became the publicly funded voice of consumers, championing their needs and empowering them to make the right choices for themselves. Consumers need someone they can trust and who has a track record in providing knowledgeable, fair and impartial advice. To ensure that the consumer bodies in the reformed landscape work better together, we have established a consumer protection partnership involving the OFT, the National Trading Standards Board, the Trading Standards Institute, the Financial Conduct Authority, Consumer Futures, the Citizens Advice service and consumer bodies from Scotland and Northern Ireland. They will share intelligence and assess and address consumer detriment, providing accountability for the national consumer protection system.
In addition, the Government are working to promote the efficiency and capacity of local authority regulatory services, enabling them to play their role in protecting consumers and promoting a level playing field for business. We will have better targeted enforcement, balanced by businesses which are better able to comply. There are over 400 local authorities across the UK, delivering vital protections in trading standards and environmental health as well as services on behalf of a range of regulators. Local authority regulators are at the forefront of interaction with business and have an important role to play in supporting their local areas by protecting consumers and facilitating local growth. While they are best placed to regulate local issues, there are challenges in achieving consistency between them.
The primary authority scheme enables businesses operating across local authority boundaries in England and Wales to form a partnership with a single local authority to co-ordinate advice, inspection and enforcement by trading standards and environmental health services. It provides advice, on a cost-recovery basis, that a business can rely on. It saves time for officers, promotes information sharing and reduces duplication. These benefits are why, to date, 759 businesses and 103 local authorities have entered primary authority partnerships.
Through her excellent work with the Trading Standards Institute, the noble Baroness, Lady Crawley, will be as aware as I am of the importance of the professional competency of regulatory officers in supporting both consumer and business confidence. That is why the Government have created a common approach to professional competency for regulators across disciplines in environmental health and trading standards. This provides cost-effective means for regulators to improve the capacity and effectiveness of staff. The Government are supporting local authority innovation to provide more efficient and effective regulatory services. We are providing small targeted grants to encourage innovation, and are working hand in hand with local enterprise partnerships to support them in providing a better regulatory environment for businesses.
I will now talk about local government finance, which was more or less touched on by most noble Lords. This year’s local government finance settlement marked a new approach for local government, based on self-determination and financial independence. It is the start of the biggest shake-up of local government finance in a generation. We are shifting power from Whitehall to town hall, by providing a direct financial incentive for councils to promote growth and jobs in their areas. Councils now have more power than ever before but they need to understand the implication of this, and they have to act in their residents’ best interests and work harder on their behalf.
We recognise that last year, local government showed commendable skill in reducing budgets while still protecting front-line services. Now, through our community and neighbourhood budgets, we are rewiring the system and bringing local regulatory services together from right across the board, including local authorities, the police and the health service. They are finding millions of pounds-worth in local savings.
Whole-place community budgets provide an opportunity to align public sector activities, to make them more streamlined and efficient. My noble friend Lady Seccombe mentioned the freeze in council tax, which was extended again yesterday and has been welcomed by families up and down the country. Yesterday, the Chancellor said that the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government is a model for lean government. I also think the Secretary of State has a great knowledge of his portfolio and has helped to encourage the innovative thinking mentioned by my noble friend. While councils may face difficult choices, trading standards and environmental health are not being singled out. Ultimately, it is for local authorities to determine their own spending priorities. However, there must be balance: if councils intend to increase council tax then they should be able to demonstrate good value to their taxpayers.
This is a new dawn for local government, and regulatory services have a part to play in creating healthy local communities. From now on, if councils bring in more business and more jobs, they will be rewarded through retaining a greater share of business tax. My noble friend Lady Seccombe asked about the sums involved here. From April, local authorities directly retain nearly £11 billion of business rates instead of returning it to the Treasury, and they keep the growth of that share of business rates. Councils will benefit by doing the right thing by their communities. If they bring in jobs and businesses, they will be rewarded. Research suggests that allowing councils to keep a share of the business rates could generate an additional £10 billion for the national economy by 2020.
We are also ensuring that people have the information they need to hold their local authorities to account for how they spend taxpayers’ money, and for citizens, businesses and the voluntary sector to suggest ways of providing better value services which meet local needs. The code of recommended practice for local authorities on data transparency sets out three guiding principles: they should be open, demand-led, and timely.
A number of other questions were raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Crawley, and the noble Lord, Lord Harris, about the consumer Bill giving two days’ notice. It is about balance: we must not unduly burden compliant businesses, for whom that burden is unnecessarily stressful. The Bill will allow trading standards officers to undertake spot checks as and when they want to. Giving 48 hours’ notice enables business owners to prepare themselves but if we receive any intelligence that something is wrong with their business and that it should be investigated, the officers have the authority to make an instant inspection.
Baroness Crawley
I thank the Minister, but how can you establish that intelligence if you are working on the basis of always giving notice? How do you get a body of intelligence behind you?
Lord Popat
The noble Baroness raises a very important issue. I cannot confirm this, but I am guessing that a lot of the inspectors who inspect those premises quite often get some intelligence that people are not doing the right thing. They then have the right and the authority to do an instant inspection. The noble Lord, Lord Harris, mentioned nursing homes where the same thing happens. Notice is given for the inspection of nursing homes and this is to enable the owners and managers, who are quite often not there, to be there. In the face of cuts elsewhere, we will be investing in trading standards so they can take wider responsibilities in this particular area. I am afraid that 48 hours is the norm that has been put in place.
A couple of other issues were raised but I will probably write to the noble Baroness on these. In summary, the Government are rebalancing responsibility. Local areas are best placed to understand their communities and innovate to deliver the best services for them. This is not simply because of the need to balance the nation’s books, but because we believe there are more effective and efficient ways of delivering services which can be best identified locally.
I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Crawley, for allowing the Committee to debate this important topic. I again thank all noble Lords for taking part in this debate. I know this area concerns us all. It is going through some reforms but given time, I am sure that the Government will realise if things are not going well. We always help with changing things if we have to.