The Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTSS), is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SC047951). Our members are professional trading standards managers representing every Scottish local authority trading standards service.
The Society liaises with local council colleagues across the UK, and engages with government and others around the operation of the consumer protection landscape, providing leadership and consistency to Scotland's 31 trading standards teams. We aim to educate, coordinate, and support.
SCOTSS also maintains the Approved Trader database which is an online portal to all of Scotland's trading standards run assured trader schemes, try it...it's free!
SCOTSS works with a wide range of government, regulatory, consumer, business, and third sector organisations, mixing operational and technical expertise with policy work, in order to ensure the effectiveness of consumer protection services in Scotland.
Advice Direct Scotland is a Scottish Government funded service that offers free and impartial advice on all consumer issues and aims to help consumers understand their rights and how to exercise them. Consumers are referred by the service to local authority trading standards services where appropriate for further action. SCOTSS also works with Citizens Advice in England and Wales, so that consumers right across the UK have good access to information, advice and advocacy.
CTSI, The Chartered Trading Standards Institute is a professional membership association formed in 1881. It represents trading standards professionals working in the UK and overseas - in local authorities, the business and consumer sectors and in central government.
It exists to promote and protect the success of a modern vibrant economy, and to safeguard the health, safety and wellbeing of citizens by enhancing the professionalism of its members.
Trading Standards Scotland is a national team managed by COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities). They are funded directly by the Department for Business and Trade, and HM Treasury, to provide a cross border service to combat scams, national consumer issues, and illegal moneylending, across Scotland.
CMA, The Competiton and Markets Authority is a non-ministerial government department, that works to promote competition for the benefit of consumers, both within and outside the UK. CMA was created out of the Office of Fair Trading and the Competiton Commission in 2013, and its aim is to make markets work well for consumers, businesses and the economy.
The CMA has a strong focus on competition and market issues, but also enforces consumer protection legislation to tackle practices and market conditions that make it difficult for consumers to exercise choice.
Consumer Scotland is an independent statutory body established to ensure consumer interests are at the heart of a fair, transparent and sustainable Scottish marketplace. It is a Non-Ministerial Office that is independent of the Scottish Government and accountable only to the Scottish Parliament. Consumer Scotland is an advocacy body and we liaise across a number of relevant areas that affect Scottish consumers such as fair trading, metrology and product safety.
Find your nearest trading standards office location in the UK courtesy of CTSI, the only regularly updated location database.
Find a locationScottish Trading Standards find that consumers across Scotland are continuing to lose out from pricing issues in convenience stores and unacceptable levels of short-weight goods that together are costing Scottish consumers £millions.
Following two previous investigations at the end of 2022 that found a range of pricing errors in shops across Scotland, to the detriment of consumers, and also short-weight issues with prepacked goods, similar investigations were carried out at the end of 2023 to find out if the situation had improved.
On the pricing side the investigation saw participation from 18 local authorities, checking compliance with pricing rules outlined in the Price Marking Order 2004 and the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, and also taking account of work done by the Competition and Markets Authority on Unit Pricing10. The focus was on small to medium convenience stores following results from 2022, and a total of 417 convenience stores were visited, encompassing both independent shops and small to medium-sized chained businesses. The results showed that there had been no improvement from the 2022 investigation.
A full report can be found on the SCOTSS website here.
Alexandra Connell, Chair of SCOTSS commented: She continued:
“Transparency in pricing is at the heart of fair trade in goods and is a core issue for Trading Standards teams across Scotland, making sure that consumers pay the correct price for their purchases and that businesses are diligent in presenting goods for sale accurately and legally. With a continuing cost of living crisis, it is important that the processes and systems that should be in place are working properly and that consumers pay the correct amount for their shopping. My advice to shoppers is always check prices carefully when in store and make sure you have been properly charged at the till. “
“Consumers should always get what they pay for, and fair measurement is a centuries old principle at the heart of fair trade in goods and at the heart of our profession, making sure that consumers get what they pay for and that businesses are weighing and measuring goods accurately. As with the pricing issues, and the key importance of weights and measures to the overall market, metrological systems must be working properly.”