April news and policy round-up

26 Apr 2023 09:13 PM

Government responds to CTSI concerns around vaping issues

Issues surrounding vaping, including non-compliant products and underage sales, continues to be a prevalent concern within the Trading Standards profession as well of being of public interest. CTSI’s work to raise awareness, campaign for action and support Trading Standards teams in this area is ongoing.

There are a few updates in this space:

Tabling House of Lords amendments to the Retained EU Law Bill

The Retained EU Law Bill report stage was due to begin after the Easter recess but has been delayed. We are awaiting confirmation, but we expect it will be taking place in the middle of May. We are keeping a close eye on the situation and will be taking advice from our President, Lord Jamie Lindsay and Vice President, Baroness Crawley on briefing notes and amendments to consider putting forward.

Consumer attitudes to vegan and plant-based food

After meeting with CTSI members, lead officers and stakeholders CTSI will shortly be publishing a policy paper exploring issues and concerns in relation to vegan and plant-based foods and allergens.

The objective of this work is to raise awareness of the potential food allergen issues regarding vegan and plant-based food, identify issues around labelling and legal definitions and to make any recommendations for policy changes to help improve issues identified as part of the research.

Caring for our animals

CTSI is working with our Lead Officer for Animal Health, Steph Young, to gather evidence to feed into a short policy paper that will be produced to set out the issues with the Kept Animals Bill, and to highlight the important need for change. To assist this policy project CTSI will be reaching out to members, carrying out public polling and building a coalition of stakeholders to support the project. Shortly, CTSI will be sending a ‘caring for our animals’ survey out to members, we would really appreciate if members with experience in this space would complete our survey to aid us in our campaign and to help us better understand the challenges facing the Trading Standards Profession in relation to animal welfare.

APPG on Consumer Protection: launching a new National Inquiry on “Online Marketplaces and Supply Chains”

CTSI is gearing up for the first project for the APPG, which will be a National Inquiry looking at online marketplaces and the supply chains. CTSI and the APPG will be holding a number of evidence sessions to seek the views of stakeholders and representatives from industry to gather views to inform a policy paper. CTSI will be asking for member views via an online survey, so please keep an eye out for details about that in the next few weeks. If you have an interest in this area then please do not hesitate to contact the policy team.

CTSI continuing to make headlines