Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Chartered Trading Standards Institute Workforce Survey, June 2016, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of changes in budgets for local authority trading standards services on the delivery of trading standards services across the UK.

Funding and prioritisation for trading standards are decisions for local authorities – accountable to local communities and the people they serve.

Government recognises that consumer protection goes beyond local authority boundaries, and therefore provides £15m per year for coordinated Trading Standards activity in the UK.