Minutes:
The Board received a report, presented by Samuel Abdullahi (Team Leader Regulatory Service Brent Council) which provided Members with an analysis of service requests received by Brent and Harrow Trading Standards Service which would assist identification of where the Service’s resources should be deployed to achieve the biggest impact.
Joint Advisory Board Members consider the report and make recommendations or comments where appropriate.
The aim of this analysis and report is to help evaluate where the Service’s demands come from, to assist in identifying any trends, to better understand why/how our customers are contacting us and to assists with identifying where the Service’s resources should be deployed to achieve the biggest impact relating to the types of complaints/service requests it receives. To achieve this, the analysis looks at the following:
1. Identify the main source of service requests along with the types of products/services we have received complaints about and identify any pattern.
2. Identify the hotspot within the Boroughs where the Service can concentrate its enforcement actions to achieve the biggest impact.
The data used for the analysis was obtained from the services complaints/service requests database between 1 April 2022 to 30 September 2023.
Complaints and service requests received from various sources have been recorded in the database.
A total of 6,911 service requests were received between 1 April 2022 to 30 September 2023. Like most other Trading Standards authorities nationally, we collaborate with the Citizens’ Advice Consumer Service who function as the public’s first point of contact when they want help and advice with a consumer issue or to escalate a criminal breach to their local trading standards.
6,054 of our service requests were received via Citizens Advice Consumer Service (CACS).
Service requests are split into two categories:
· 4,155 were classified as NOTIFICATIONS (this is used to indicate the transfer of cases from CACS for information purposes only where there is no commitment for Trading Standards to contact the enquirer as the help and advice has been provided by CACS ) Some Trading Standards Service have requested that they do not wish to receive notifications from CACS but in Brent and Harrow, we have these sent to us to help with our monitoring of businesses and wider intelligence gathering purposes.
· 1,899 were classified as REFERRAL (this is used to indicate transfer of cases for further consideration by Trading Standards). We will individually consider, and risk assess all referrals received from CACS. CACS gives the service no obligation to contact the complainant in the first instant unless we need further evidence, as while the matter may concern an alleged criminal breach, the matter could be determined to be a minor issue or something which has been determined as a low priority.
The remaining requests were received directly to the service’s own email address (559), via the national Intelligence Database (102), by letter (19), telephone (14) and the remaining 162 were received via other methods such as an officer generated complaint.
The top main source of complaints received are from consumers either directly to the Service or via the Citizens Advice Consumer Service (CACS) 6136 were received which includes 6054 notifications and referrals from CACS.
The second highest is ‘Enquiry from other Local Authority / Statutory Body’ with 147, closely followed by ‘Officer Generated Complaint’ with 140 (Officer-generated complaint is when an officer finds a breach whilst carrying out market surveillance, or inspection and creates a service request to either deal with the request personally or for another officer to deal with.
The service had received complaints about 400 different types of individual products. However, these have been grouped together to consolidate the number to 58 as detailed in the table.
Used Vehicles have the highest number of reported complaints with 849 in total since April 2022.
· 546 of these were about businesses based within Brent and Harrow or neighbouring boroughs.
· 316 came via CACS as a Notification because the business was based within Brent & Harrow.
· The second highest reported complaints are with regard to Building and Renovation Services with 771.
· 340 of these complaints were about businesses based within Brent and Harrow or neighbouring boroughs.
The main type of breach reported within both boroughs was Defective Goods and Substandard Services which is often related to Used Vehicles or Building and Renovation Services.
From the analysis of the report the following assessment has been reached.
1. It is almost certain that the Service will continue to receive complaints from general members of the public mainly via Citizens Advice Consumer Service 2. It is highly likely that used vehicles, building and renovation services will continue to be the main goods and/or services that will be complaints about. This also fits in with these typically being high value transactions increasing the need for the public to complain if something goes wrong.
2. It is highly likely that Defective Goods and Substandard Services will remain the top two types of breaches which is consistent with the two highest types of complaints.
Complaints and service requests received are spread out across different areas within the boroughs.
1. Enforcement actions to be focused within the hotspot areas and most complaints about businesses to educate and encourage businesses to be responsible, fair
· Pros: targets areas identified as having issues based on complaints, will hopefully reduce the number of complaints, and raise compliance within the sector allowing the Service to be more focused emerging trends.
· Cons: other areas within the boroughs may suffer from a lack of enforcement/education.
2. Liaise/engage more with other partners that have an interest in such matters such Police, Licensing
· Pros: A bigger pool of officers and professionals to help tackle these issues.
· Cons: More people to co-ordinate with and no control over what work they do as their priorities may differ from that of Trading Standards
3. Raise awareness amongst members of the public with regards to their rights when buying goods, specifically when dealing with building and renovation businesses
· Pros: educating members of the public with regards to the law may empower them to make more informed decision and this could reduce complaints around this sector.
· Cons: reliant on members of the public to attend and will have additional cost and officer’s time.
4. Compare the Hotspot Areas of Activity based on complaints received against other reports such as anti-social/ theft within the borough to identify if there might be a bigger/wider issue
· Pros: better insight as to perhaps one of the likelihoods of antisocial behaviour and tackling other crimes this may also reduce antisocial behaviour, the chance of partnership working across the Council.
· Cons: Other mapping is not readily available to Trading Standards and will take time to compile and consult with another department within the councils and Police.
Referring to the table on page 28 of the report, Members sought clarification as to who determined the categories or codes The person writing it down at Citizens’ Advice or whatever decides which breach it is because what's difference between the top one, a brand which is safety goods, and the third one, which is effective goods, both of which appear pretty high in Harrow are they making a subjective decision as to which way which one it comes into. officers advised that it was subjective depending on the person who received it, but the codes were changed once Trading Standards had considered it. The forms were basic, but product safety is a product that is going to harm you and required immediate attention and a defective issue was if an element/part was missing from the product.
Members requested further clarification on the report mechanism and the ages of complainant and were advised that this was not captured, unless it was a doorstep scam. Members suggested that the best way to raise awareness was by providing more information to schools and young people by holding talks, leafleting and outreach work. Officers welcomed the suggestions and undertook to look into them. The majority of complaints received related to the types of consumer goods, at the higher price end such as, building works, cars purchase, and less likely to be coming from a younger person.
Havingconsidered thereport, theBoard
RESOLVED: To note the report.