Trading Standards Service Plan 2024 to 2025

North East Trading Standards Association (NETSA)

North East Trading Standards Association is a regional partnership of the twelve north east local authority Trading Standards Services, working to enhance local service provision and to contribute to meeting local, regional and national priorities. North East Trading Standards Association has sub-groups focussed on specialist areas such as product safety and metrology, which report directly to the Executive.

The North East Trading Standards Association Executive provides strategic direction and is made up of the managers from the region's Trading Standards Services and Regional Investigations Team. The Executive's work is supported by a Regional Coordinator funded via the National Trading Standards Board (NTSB).

North East Regional Investigations Team

The North East Regional Investigations Team is a small team of enforcement officers responsible for tackling level 2 (regional) and level 3 (national) criminality. Whilst the team is funded via the National Trading Standards Board, governance is provided through the North East Trading Standards Association Executive. Work can be allocated to the team via the North East Trading Standards Association's National Tasking Group or North East Trading Standards Association's Regional Tasking Group (a subgroup of the Executive).

Regional Intelligence Analyst

A Regional Intelligence Analyst, funded by the National Trading Standards Board, works with Local Intelligence Liaison Officers from each Authority to improve intelligence collection and analysis and to develop intelligence sharing with other enforcement agencies including the three regional Police forces, HMRC, NCA and others.

National Trading Standards Board (NTSB) Teams

The National Trading Standards Board oversees a number of directly funded national teams that undertake enforcement action and co-ordinate national enforcement projects in specific areas, including:

• The National Estate and Letting Agency Team, jointly based at Powys and Bristol Trading Standards, is the UK's lead regulator under the Estate Agents Act 1979 and the Tenant Fees Act 2019
• The National e-Crime Team, based at North Yorkshire Trading Standards, aims to protect consumers and businesses in England and Wales from internet crime and online fraud
• The National Scams Team, based at Buckinghamshire and Surrey Trading Standards, has introduced a referral system allowing local authority officers to engage with local victims on a one to one basis. They also gather intelligence on mass marketing scams and scam victims and raise public awareness of the damage caused by such scams

Citizens Advice Consumer Service (CACS)

Citizens Advice Consumer Service is funded by the government to provide first tier telephone advice on consumer issues. Enforcement actions and the more complex consumer problems, including those requiring follow-up casework are referred onto our specialist officers to deal with at a local level. A referral protocol exists to help ensure the efficiency of the referral process and all cases are referred to local officers via a secure web portal. Officers regularly provide feedback to Citizens Advice Consumer Service on any service issues that are identified.