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, Energy and Industrial Strategy, 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.
Enter your postcode to find your nearest trading standards office location in Scotland.
Ongoing work by Trading Standards officers in Scotland testing sellers of tobacco and nicotine vaping products (vapes) has found that 1 in 8 premises visited sold cigarettes, and 1 in 5 sold vapes to an under 18 volunteer. These are significantly worse results than expected and may in large part be caused by the child appealing nature of (in particular single use) vapes, and their wide availability in shops and service premises.
Trading Standards Officers work in partnership with the Scottish Government to monitor and support sellers, who need to comply with regulations associated with the retail sale of both tobacco and vaping products. Officers work with young (under-18) people locally and in tightly controlled test purchase situations to check that sellers are abiding by the law by asking for proof of age where appropriate and refusing to sell to children. Those found to be selling to under-18s can be issued with fixed penalty notices or even be banned from selling these products.
Last year, officers carried out test purchase operations at 312 premises across Scotland with 63 failures for vapes, and 268 attempted test purchases of tobacco with 33 failures. A full report can be found on the SCOTSS website here.
Last year saw a massive surge in popularity of single use or disposable vapes, which are cheap to buy and in the main use child appealing packaging to attract younger users. There is an unfortunate environmental impact as the products are mainly plastic and contain lithium batteries, and are commonly discarded carelessly after use.
David MacKenzie, Chair of SCOTSS commented: He continued:
“The health of young people is a key priority for Trading Standards and smoking is the greatest threat to their health and development, especially for younger children. These results are very concerning and we will be stepping up efforts this year to support sellers with advice, and continue to take enforcement action where sellers break the law. “
“NVPs can be a useful cessation aid for smokers who want to give up smoking, but they are not intended as a lifestyle product for young people. The bright packaging colours and sugary and fruity flavours are child appealing, and the easy availability of single use vapes in particular is not helpful. We would like to see the same display rules applied to NVPs that is applied to tobacco, i.e. they are kept out of sight in store.”