Protecting people and businesses in the capital – the focus of London Trading Standards Week 2021
A week of events, talks, training and support is being launched by London Trading Standards this October.
From Monday 18th to Friday 22nd London Trading Standards (LTS) Week will highlight various campaigns being run to protect businesses and consumers in the capital.
Each day there will be themed messages promoting the efforts of LTS officers, including rogue traders in the rental sector, unsafe vehicles for sale, doorstep scams, knives, illegal tobacco and loan sharks.
Chair of LTS, Nishi Patel, said: “As we slowly return to normal following the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s important that businesses and people living in London are aware of the advice and support on offer.
“The initiatives being run aim to make the capital a safer, more prosperous place to live and work.”
Day one of LTS Week will highlight some of the key projects being run. Operation Regal focuses on unsafe and substandard vehicles for sale, whilst the Tick Box initiative encourages businesses to ensure illegitimate products aren’t kept in self storage premises.
New for this year is ‘Legally Letting – A guide to the law for tenants and landlords’, a brochure packed with advice to tackle rogue elements in the rental sector.
On the second day the focus will be on knives and relaunching the Responsible Retailer Agreement. The RRA seeks to gain the support of sellers to ensure they check the age of individuals being sold to and store knives in secure locations.
Senior Trading Standards Officer, Doug Love, said: “With the training and advice freely available to retailers, there should be fewer sales of knives to underage buyers and no instances of thefts of knives from open display, with potentially fatal results.”
‘Do us a favour, look out for your neighbour’ is the theme of the third day of LTS Week.
During the Covid-19 pandemic more people were keeping an eye on elderly or vulnerable residents. Rogue traders are now on the increase again and LTS is keen to ask the public for its help in reducing their activities with this initiative.
Consumer protection journalist, Matt Alwright, is the new ambassador for London Trading Standards, and is keen to highlight the importance of cracking down on rogue traders: “We’ve never needed our Trading Standards officers more. For a lot of Londoners, money is tight, and it’s not the time to be losing out to devious scams and dodgy schemes.
“London Trading Standards week is all about making sure the good people in and around our capital are equipped to get a straight deal and keep an eye out for each other, and I’m really looking forward to keeping up to date with the world of Trading Standards.”
Business support is the focus for day four, with a series of training and talks on subjects such as illegal money lending, as well as the night time economy and the Ask for Angela project.
What is being done to help London continue to operate and remain open for business post pandemic will also be highlighted.
You can attend any of these online events, free of charge, throughout October 21st.
The themed webinars are as follows with further information about each of the events in the links below;
10.30am to midday – London Strategic Regulatory Network meeting – invite only.
Could you spot a Illegal Lender ? Tickets, Thu 21 Oct 2021 at 12:00 | Eventbrite
Finally, on the fifth day of LTS Week, ‘Operation Ce Ce’ will examine the recent raids carried out to crack down on the illegal tobacco trade. Almost 300,000 cigarettes have been seized and products with a market value of £226,800 successfully confiscated.
Trading Standards manager, Cenred Elworthy, said: “Stubbing out the illegal tobacco trade aims to reduce crime in London’s neighbourhoods by tackling illicit businesses, prevent children from getting cigarettes at ‘pocket money prices’ and becoming addicted to smoking. Keeping cigarette prices at a high level is well proven as a significant reason adults make the life changing decision to quit.”
LTS Week will bring attention to the online consumer crime reporting tool – a confidential, no reply service to raise concerns over inappropriate practices relating to all schemes. Report consumer crime – London Trading Standards
For live updates and information on LTS Week, follow social media: Twitter @London_T_S , Facebook @LondonTradingStandards, Instagram @lts_londontradingstandards and by checking for the #LTSWeek2021 hashtag.