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

Lord Toby Harris stepped down as the Chair of NTS in September 2021.

As he left the post Lord Harris said:

"As I stand down after more than eight years as Chair of National Trading Standards, I am proud of the hugely impressive work done by the NTS teams during that period tackling over £1 billion worth of consumer and business detriment. This has been under-pinned by the tireless efforts of Local Trading Standards around the country often struggling with limited resources but always making a difference to local communities. It has been a privilege to be associated with NTS and with the wider Trading Standards community and I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for the incredibly important work that they do."

Paul Noone (Lancashire County Council) is the current Vice Chair and he will take on the Chair as an interim measure until NTS can recruit a new independent Chair. 

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 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), Home Office, Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to support the work of National Trading Standards.