Trading Standards - Business advice and inspection

We carry out a wide range of duties that are aimed at protecting consumers and helping responsible businesses to profit. We regularly inspect shops and businesses in Lambeth - everything from estate agents and garages to Internet companies and theatres - to ensure their trading practices, advertising and pricing comply with the law.

If they're not playing by the rules we can take legal action.

To help ensure that the public can be confident about the goods and services they buy in Lambeth, we also advise local businesses on complying with consumer law.

Enforcement policy

We have published our policies on enforcement and are happy to send you a copy on request.

Our services

• We visit all businesses in Lambeth according to risk. All high-risk businesses are inspected once per year.
• All advice and information will be held as confidential.
• On our inspections we check all weighing and measuring equipment to ensure that it is fair and legal.
• We can use the council brand to deliver warnings of scams targeted toward the business community.
• We can contact Trading Standards nationally on behalf of business if in agreement with us that there are safety issues or simple errors, which need resolving.
• We provide a limited testing and verification service for some weighing and measuring equipment, for example: petrol pumps, trader’s scales and brake testers. Our service does not include the verification of trader's weights or capacity measures. Please contact us for our fees list.

Business self-help advice sheets

We provide self-help advice sheets on a range of topics.

These pages are linked to the National Trading Standards Organisation site which contains regularly updated information on recent cases and trends.

What you can do to help

The trading community can always approach us with individual problems or lager marketplace issues that they need assistance to resolve.

Members of the public can complain to us if they encounter unlawful business practice.

Our service standards

• We will be open about what we're asking, and confirm in writing any deficiencies we find or improvements you may need to make.
• We will be helpful and encourage requests for advice.
• All enforcement actions will be proportionate to the circumstances.
• We will be consistent in our application of the law.
• If we find any significant problems, we'll let you know and we'll confirm this is writing within 5 days of our visit.
• We will answer our public contact telephone numbers within 15 seconds during office hours (9-5).

Who to contact

See Trading Standards - who to contact.

 

Disclaimer

The information on the following pages is published by Trading Standards. While we strive to make sure that the information published on this website is up to date and correct, we cannot accept liability for the information on page. If you have any queries about the content on this page, please contact Consumer Direct.