Recommendation 13

There is a gap in the coordination between local and national regulation. The OPSS does not have a full picture of investigation and enforcement activity undertaken by local Trading Standards services, and is therefore unable to align its work with local intervention.23 The OPSS recognised it has more work to do to improve coordination with local regulators, and described some of the recent work it has done in this area. It introduced a new Product Safety Database to better share data within the regulatory system and told us this has led to a 600% increase in the number of data entries from local authorities, compared with the previous system. The OPSS has also introduced new forms of support to local authorities. This includes funding to ensure all services have free access to product standards from the British Standards Institution, and providing 4,000 officer days of training across 200 local authorities in the last three years.24 17 Qq 26, 37 18 Q 34; C&AG’s Report, para 2.9 19 Q 19 20 London Fire Brigade submission, page 1 21 Q 35 22 Q 23, 25 23 C&AG’s Report, para 3.13 24 Q 23 Protecting consumers from unsafe products 11