This report focuses on trading standards services, which face conflicting pressures. On the one hand, the expertise of even the largest trading standards authority can be dwarfed by the buying and spending power of multinational retailers. It is becoming increasingly difficult for trading standards services to deal with these traders - they often appear to be a David to the retail Goliaths. Conversely, when dealing with small traders, they may be seen as bureaucrats overburdening people who are struggling to make a living. At the same time, the public is making greater demands on them and expects more of them than ever before.
The findings of a study into local authority trading standards services, carried out from the autumn of 1998 to the summer of 1999 are summarised in this report. The Audit Commission's work on trading standards services has helped directly with its response to the best value agenda. The recent best value legislation - the Local Government Act 1999 - requires that local authorities carry out best value reviews of their functions; the Act also gives the Audit Commission a power to inspect authorities' compliance with this requirement. The research upon which this report is based provided an input to the Commission's development and testing of methods of carrying out those inspections and to the development of its ideas on how to set up a best value inspectorate. And, by helping to pioneer a 'prototype' inspection methodology, local authority trading standards services have provided the Commission (and local government) with invaluable experience and insights.