Business Service Plan

The Trading Standards Service is located within the Directorate of Operations and Regulatory Services. The responsible Cabinet Member for the Trading Standards service within the Dynamic City Portfolio is Councillor Irim Ali. The primary aim of the Business Service Plan (pdf 871 kb) is to enable Newcastle City Council's Trading Standards Service to demonstrate what the key priorities are for the service in 2022/2023 and show how those activities contribute to the delivery of key local public services and priorities.

Our common and primary purpose in meeting all our planned objectives is to benefit the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, which primarily involves providing long term benefits to the businesses and consumers, which Trading Standards are empowered by a wide range of statutory legislation to advise and protect. 

In particular the Service will respond positively to the key themed priorities for the City Council.

The Trading Standards Service seeks to make Newcastle a Fairer City by inspiring and supporting communities to take the lead themselves against unfair and rogue trading, and by encouraging people to get involved and work together in continue to build consumer protection in Newcastle. Through such local involvement, the Trading Standards Service can then target its resources at those issues which can cause concern to our local communities and which require the Service to exercise its highly specialised interventions and powers.

To see the type of work that the Service carried out in 2022-2023 go to the Annual Report (pdf 737 kb)

Specifically we note within the Newcastle Labour Manifesto 2019 the following statement:

"Occasionally there are sickening stories in our local media highlighting the scams that have been carried out on vulnerable older people. We have already introduced a number of 'no cold calling' zones across Newcastle, where such scams are more likely to be tried, but we will continue to raise awareness about scams and pursue the perpetrators through Trading Standards".

For 2023/2024, the Trading Standards Service will aim to make a significant contribution to the protection of vulnerable people and the reduction of inequalities and the delivery of excellent services. Go to our webpage Doorstep Crime

In protecting vulnerable people, the service will seek to strengthen communities so that Newcastle residents are resilient to rogue traders, scams and unfair commercial practices. The service will continue to be creative and innovative in ensuring that our interventions make an impact, are self-sustaining and offer real value to the people of Newcastle. The service will also work collaboratively with partners in Newcastle's public and voluntary sectors to ensure that we deliver outcomes that meet the needs of our public in the most effective and efficient way.

The Trading Standards Service will of course continue to provide regulatory services that protect both consumers and legitimate businesses, that create safer communities, and that support a fair and safe trading environment. We will also continue to develop collaborative activities with our colleagues in the regional partnership body that is the North East Trading Standards Association (NETSA), in order to assure consistency, maximise efficiency, and create capacity, and the service shall continue to be prominent contributors at the national level to ensure that the voice of the City of Newcastle upon Tyne remains influential in the rapidly changing 'consumer landscape'.

Measures to support the transition to UKCA

The Government has announced plans to introduce measures to further support businesses transitioning to UKCA marking.  The Government intends to:

• reduce re-testing costs for UKCA certification, by allowing conformity assessment activities for CE marking completed by the 31 December 2022 to be used by manufacturers as the basis for applying a UKCA marking. This will reduce the immediate costs faced by manufacturers and will be valid until the expiry of their certificate or for 5 years (31 December 2027), whichever is sooner. 

• make clear there is no need to re-test existing imported stock, as these products will be considered already placed on the market In Great Britain (GB). This will prevent the costly, and unnecessary re-labelling of existing stock for businesses. 

• make clear that spare parts that repair, replace or maintain goods already on the GB market can meet the same requirements that were in place at the time the original product or system was placed on the GB market. This will allow products and goods requiring spare parts to continue to be maintained. 

• continue to allow businesses to affix the UKCA marking, and to include importer information for products from EEA countries (and in some cases Switzerland), on an accompanying document or label until 31 December 2025. This will allow business to adjust their product design to accommodate marking changes at a convenient and cost-effective time.

These changes do not apply to medical devices, construction products, transportable pressure equipment, cableways, unmanned aircraft systems, rail products and marine equipment.

Updated guidance on these changes can be found on GOV.UK: Using the UKCA marking and Placing manufactured goods on the market in GB.  Legislation will be brought forward where required to enable these changes.

Changes to toys and cosmetics legislation

The first statutory instrument amending the UK toys and cosmetics regulations has been laid before Parliament.  The Toys and Cosmetic Products (Restriction of Chemical Substances) Regulations 2022 make changes to the toy and cosmetic regulations annexes, either entailing an amendment to the permitted level or the prohibition of specific chemicals in toys and cosmetic products.  The changes in respect of CMRs in cosmetics and fragrance allergens in toys are due to come into effect on 15 October, and changes in respect of chemicals assessed by the Scientific Advisory Group on Chemical Safety come into force on 15 December 2022.

You can find out further information by reading the Planned changes to toys and cosmetics regulations GOV.UK news article.

Enforcement Policy

To see a copy of the Enforcement Policy adopted by the Division. 

Newsletter

The Trading Standards service with the aim of providing updates on our work, produces a newsletter twice a year. To access a copy of our newsletter go to High Standard (pdf 1.7 mb).

Contact

Trading Standards service, Directorate of Operations and Regulatory Services, Civic Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8QH. Email: tradingstandards@newcastle.gov.uk