The Committee noted the 2023/24 budget forecast, agreed the 2024/25 budget, noted the Trading Standards Vapes Enforcement Update, noted the 2023/24 performance to mid-March and noted the Trading Standards Tobacco Work report.

Joint Service Budget

The Assistant Head of Trading Standards, Amanda Poole, presented a report on the Joint Service Budget, noting an underspend of 4.1% (£118,000) against the budget for 2023/24. This underspend was largely caused by difficulties recruiting qualified officers, and a decision to intentionally hold some vacancies in anticipation of the reduced budget for 2024/25. The Committee agreed the proposed budget of £2,753,000 for 2024/25 which includes pressures such as pay inflation and savings from a reduction in posts, subscriptions, archiving costs and the food sampling budget.

Trading Standards Vapes Enforcement Update

The Team Manager for Regulation, David Pickering, updated the Committee on the work being done to regulate the sale of vapes, including enforcement activity concerning underage sales and the sale of illegal products.

Since the beginning of April 2023 the Service had received 248 complaints from the public and partner organisations, such as the Police, regarding vapes. The Service had conducted 86 test purchases at retailers across the region, with failure rates varying between areas. The Committee heard that the Service is conducting frequent enforcement activity around vapes, including seizing illegal vapes for sale. 9,400 vapes had been seized between April 2023 and mid-March, compared to just under 8,000 in the previous year.

The Committee heard that the Service had taken one prosecution and issued one Simple Caution against retailers who had sold vapes to children. The prosecution related to a business in Aylesbury that was given advice after selling a vape to a 16-year-old in February 2023, but then sold to the same test purchaser again in June.

The Committee heard that the government announced its intention to ban disposable vapes in January 2024. The Service had fed back to the government on some technical issues with draft legislation to implement the ban, including that the proposed legislation does not provide powers for Trading Standards officers to seize illegal vapes. The Committee discussed the £30m of funding announced by the government to go alongside changes to the regulation of vapes, but heard that there was still uncertainty around how much funding would be directed towards Trading Standards.

Councillor Winn noted that a recent BBC programme about vapes, fronted by journalist and presenter, Jordan North, featured Trading Standards Officers undertaking enforcement activity. He said:

It's probably worth it. I think they went out with the local trading standards to seize various kind of vapes.

Councillor Winn said he had recently observed children outside a shop in Aylesbury who had purchased vapes from the shop and were using them outside.

Councillor Deanus expressed concern about the environmental impact of disposable vapes and said that more information was needed about the chemicals contained in them. The Service advised that they were working with the Association of Convenience Stores to issue assured advice and guidance about the new vape recycling scheme which requires retailers to accept a used vape whenever they sell a new one.

Performance 2023/24

Assistant Head of Trading Standards Amanda Poole presented a report summarising the performance of the service to mid-March 2024. Poole noted that there are no statutory performance indicators for Trading Standards, and the service’s performance is assessed against locally agreed Key Performance Indicators.

Poole told the Committee that the Service’s interventions relating to scams and fraud had saved residents over £3.1 million to the end of February, ahead of the £2,878,557 saved for the full 2022/23 year. The Service had supported 952 people subject to scams, installed 106 call blockers and 18 door cameras, and completed 55 investigations into illegal and unfair trading practices.

The Committee heard that the Service had secured four convictions during the year, one for a food business failing to declare allergens in its takeaway food, one for a business selling vapes to children, and one for a company supplying illegal tobacco. The company was awaiting sentencing because the director of the business, who had pleaded not guilty, was awaiting trial in May 2024. The fourth conviction was for money laundering offences.

Poole updated the Committee on the Service’s progress towards its targets, noting that it had massively reduced the number of counterfeit goods being sold at a local market following partnership working with the Police and the market operator and landlord. She also noted that the Service was likely to miss its target for the number of businesses it had supported through Primary Authority Partnerships after Woking Borough Council withdrew from most of its work in this area.

Councillor Deanus raised the fact that the Service had only exceeded its target for social media reach during one period during the year. Poole noted that the service was working with the Communications Team to develop more meaningful targets for social media reach and would be reporting back to the Committee with its ideas.

Trading Standards Tobacco Work

Team Manager David Pickering presented the Service’s annual report on its work relating to tobacco, which included a summary of activity to tackle the sale of tobacco products to people under the age of 18.

The Committee heard that, as well as working to reduce underage sales, the service was working in partnership with Public Health colleagues to reduce smoking prevalence rates in both local authority areas and tackling the sale of illicit tobacco. Pickering explained that the Service had seized 93,765 cigarettes, 16,205g of hand rolling tobacco and 33 packages of shisha during the year. One company was awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to selling illicit tobacco, one person had been given a simple caution and 27 written warnings had been issued to businesses.

The Committee heard that the Service was seeking to obtain closure orders for several premises in Buckinghamshire and was working with the Police to explore the possibility of using closure orders to disrupt the sale of tobacco in Surrey. The Service had also supported the Police with two alcohol licence reviews in Surrey, both of which resulted in the licences being revoked.

Councillor Deanus noted that the Children and Young Persons (Protection from Tobacco) Act 1991 places a duty on local authorities to review their enforcement activity to tackle underage sales of tobacco at least once every twelve months. He questioned the wording of the Act which says that authorities must consider, “the extent to which it is appropriate to carry out enforcement action”, and said:

what the hell does it why don't i just say every year you need to review what you're doing operation in your strategy?

Pickering responded that the legislation was quite old, and that the Service had chosen to expand on its annual report on underage sales of tobacco to include its broader work in this area.

Pickering told the Committee that the Service was aware of the increasing use of nicotine pouches, small pouches that are placed in the mouth to release nicotine, by young people. He said that anecdotal information from young people suggested that the pouches were popular, and that they were frequently being promoted by influencers on the social media platform, TikTok. Pickering noted that, because nicotine pouches do not contain tobacco, they are not currently controlled by legislation. He said:

we need to have some input around where you see these going from central government because we're not careful we could suddenly be the next big thing

Councillor Deanus expressed concern that the increasing use of nicotine pouches could lead to young people becoming addicted to nicotine, potentially leading them to start smoking cigarettes to satisfy their addiction.