About National Trading Standards

National Trading Standards is responsible for gathering important intelligence from around the country to combat rogue traders and tackle a number of priorities. These priorities currently include mass marketing and internet scams to other enforcement issues that go beyond local authority boundaries.

For more information on our work areas and teams please visit the  Work Areas page.

How we work

National Trading Standards is different to the support provided by local trading standards services and the Chartered Trading Standards Institute. We work closely with these partners to help us in our goals, but our remit is focused solely on leading investigations into trading standards offences.

To report a trading standards issue or to contact one of our partners, please  click here.

National Trading Standards recognises that it is important to co-ordinate activities and to clearly communicate priorities for case selection and the deployment of resources. We have put systems in place to ensure that enforcement action is co-ordinated to achieve the greatest level of protection for consumers and businesses.

You can read our current business plan and last years annual report here

National Trading Standards Board

National Trading Standards delivers national and regional consumer protection enforcement. Its Board is made up of senior and experienced heads of local government trading standards from around England and Wales with an independent Chair. Its purpose is to protect consumers and safeguard legitimate businesses by tackling serious national and regional consumer protection issues and organised criminality and protecting food supplies by ensuring the animal feed chain is safe.

Chair

The NTS Board is very pleased to announce that Lord Michael Bichard will take over as NTS Chair as from 1/6/22.

Michael brings a wealth of experience both as a cross-bench peer and in chairing and advisory roles in a wide range of organisations. We believe he will help NTS influence Government and partners as well as leading the Board in ensuring effective governance, delivery and oversight for all our work.

Lord Bichard said "I am very pleased to be taking up this role and building on the excellent work that NTS has been doing. We all know these are challenging times for Trading Standards, and for consumer protection more widely, and I am looking forward to working with everyone in the Trading Standards community and all our partners"

Governance

For more information on the Governance arrangements please click here for the English version and click here for the Welsh version.

Funding

Funding is provided by the Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), Home Office, Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to support the work of National Trading Standards.