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Our Service mission is: "To provide a fair and safe trading environment for the consumers and businesses of Dorset, through education, advice, enforcement, and partnership working."
Our objectives are to:
We deliver service in these areas:
We determine our activities based on assessment of the needs for our intervention indicated by complaints and enquiries from consumers and businesses, our statutory responsibilities, other sources of intelligence, assessing the needs of local people and our local business community, regional and national priorities and bearing in mind the risks and detriment resulting from particular non-compliance.
The Citizens Advice consumer service is the first point of contact for consumers seeking advice on consumer problems or wishing to report a concern about a business to Trading Standards. We use the data from Citizens Advice and referrals made to us from them as a key driver for our enforcement activity.
Find out more about Dorset Trading Standards, including our Trading Standards Service Plan
We aim to deliver our Service in accordance with the requirements of the Regulators’ Code 2014. View our Enforcement Policy which reflects this Code.
In your dealings with us, you can expect and will receive, an efficient and professional service. Our team of officers will:
We recognise that your business will receive advice and inspections from other organisations, and we will do our best to work with them to ensure that you receive the best service.
We want to work with you to help your business to be a success, and it is important to us that you feel able to come to us for advice when you need it. We will not take enforcement action just because you tell us that you have a problem.
View our information and guidance on meeting statutory obligations. The Business Companion pages are updated regularly as part of a service provided by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute so that guidance is current and uses input from experts nationally.
Where you need advice to help you to meet your legal obligations we will:
We do not charge for our advice unless under a Primary Authority agreement. Primary Authority agreements can be discussed as an option.
We do charge for some additional weights and measures testing services we provide on request and there are fees associated with particular licences and registrations, and to be a member of our ‘Buy With Confidence’ Trading Standards approval scheme.
We monitor and support compliance in different ways including through inspections, sampling visits, test purchases, advisory visits and complaint investigations. These visits will always be based on an assessment of risk. We will aim to give you notice that we intend to visit unless we have specific reason to believe that an unannounced visit is more appropriate.
When we visit you our officers will:
Where we identify any failure to meet legal obligations, we will respond proportionately, taking account of the circumstances, in line with our Enforcement Policy found on the website.
Where we require you to take action to remedy any failings we will:
Buy With Confidence Scheme: promoting your business
A key way of ensuring that Dorset businesses have an opportunity to promote their commitment to compliance and fair dealings with consumers is the Buy with Confidence approved trader scheme. This is supported by a membership fee of which there are approximately 150 in Dorset. The scheme is a local adoption of a scheme employed nationally and particularly well supported across the South West and South East of England.
We respond to requests for assistance that we receive, including requests for advice and complaints about breaches of the law. We will:
The relevant response times and expected resolution times in relation to business enquiries is given below although a risk-based judgment will be made by officers to determine whether a more prompt response is required.
We have a dedicated team of around 19 full time equivalent officers in total, including our specialist animal health team. We have the appropriate qualifications, skills and experience to deliver the services provided. We have arrangements in place to ensure the ongoing professional competency of all officers.
Where specialist knowledge is required in an area outside of our expertise we have access to other trading standards services in the South West and nationally through the links we maintain. In appropriate cases we can engage the help of other experts or analysts to carry out our work.
Trading Standards is part of a wider regulatory system in Dorset. We have good working relationships with other regulators within Dorset Council; Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) and the Police and the Fire Service. This includes sharing information and data on compliance and risk, where the law allows, to help target regulatory resources.
We are always willing to discuss with you the reasons why we have acted in a particular way or asked you to act in a particular way. You can contact one of our Trading Standards Management Team as an alternative to the officer who dealt with the particular matter via our Business Advice Line (01305 224702).
We manage complaints about our service through Dorset Council’s complaints procedure.
We value input from you to help us ensure our service is meeting your needs. We would like to hear from you whether your experience of us has been good or in need of improvement. This helps us to ensure we keep doing the right things and make changes where we need to. We use customer satisfaction surveys from time to time but we would welcome your feedback at any time.
We are keen to ensure that we improve our services to ensure businesses can access information and guidance from us, using our website, our Business Advice line or by visits by our officers in a way that suits businesses, while still trying to achieve compliance. We are keen to meet with any new or existing business groups to develop our services.