Our Teams
We have six teams within the Trading Standards Service, each specialising in their own area.
To help you understand what we do, we have provided you with a short description of the purpose of the team, and the key principle duties. This covers information on the type of work they undertake and the areas that they research into.
There are also some links to other pages within the Leicestershire County Council website and also some to external organisations.
The six teams within our service are: -
- The first point of contact for complaints and enquiries from business.
- Receiving referrals of complicated consumer enquiries and alleged criminal activity from Consumer Direct
- Direct provision of advice and information, and the subsequent assessment and direction of complaints and enquiries to the relevant team.
- The delivery of business and consumer education.
- Undertaking enforcement and advice projects / surveys identified as furthering consumer protection and a "level playing field" for businesses.
- Co-ordination of the ‘Home Authority Principle’ in dealing with businesses based in Leicestershire but trading over a wider area.
Agricultural and Technical Safety
- The safe storage of petroleum and explosive products.
- The health and welfare of farmed animals is protected and use of appropriate feeds.
- The prevention of the transmission of Zoonotic diseases to humans
- The safe disposal of animal by-products.
- The accuracy of weighbridges
- Checking that attendants are correctly certified to operate public weighbridges.
Business Standards and Support
- Advise, inspect and monitor businesses, other than those dealing with food, to ensure that they comply with all relevant trading standards legislation. Particularly in respect to the accuracy of weighing and measuring equipment, product safety, the use of trademarks and misleading descriptions and prices.
- The care and maintenance of standards used to check the accuracy of weighing and measuring equipment in use for trade.
- Testing and verification of weighing and measuring equipment for use in trade, or under EC rules, at the premises of the manufacturer or distributor.
Community Safety and Well-being
- Investigation of product safety complaints (other than Home Authority referrals).
- Undertaking consumer safety and consumer health projects & surveys.
- Age-restricted products enforcement.
- Community safety programmes and enforcement including development in partnership with other organisations and multi-agency work.
Food and Service Performance
- Advise, inspect and monitor food businesses, large and small, which import, manufacture and sell food. This is to ensure that they comply with all relevant trading standards legislation particularly in respect of food labelling, quality, and composition.
- Investigate complaints about food labelling, composition and quality, including out-of-date food.
- Routinely sample a variety of products to check for general compliance with food standards legislation across all food businesses.
- Provide advice about food labelling, quality, and composition to those wishing to start a food business.
- Work closely with Environmental Health Departments in District Councils to ensure that Food Safety and Food Standards are maintained
- Monitor the overall performance and quality of the Trading Standards Service and provide reports and statistical returns.
- Analysis of consumer and trader complaints so that we are able to base enforcement work on that intelligence.
- Undertaking enforcement projects and surveys identified using the “Intelligence-Led” approach.
- Investigation of unfair trading practices.
- Development of joint enforcement action with other agencies.
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