Agenda item

This report advises Members of an intended reduction to the Trading Standards budget, required by the London Borough of Harrow. This reduction impacts the budget available to Harrow for their activities and also the shared consortium costs. The report sets out a proposed new budget for the Service and highlights some of the risks that may arise as a result of these reductions.

The Board received a report, presented by Simon Legg outlining the budget position for the Trading Standard service in 2021/22, which included detail on an intended budget reduction required by the London Borough of Harrow.

In presenting the report, the Board were advised that over the previous five years Harrow’s net contribution to the provision of the service had been £500k.  For the 21/22 financial year, however, Harrow had advised of the need to seek a reduction in their annual consortium fee to £300k.  As a result of continued austerity measures, various operational savings had been made by the service over previous years, which members were advised had resulted in year on year underspends that had been proportionately apportioned between both Harrow and Brent.  Harrow’s proportion of the underspend at the end of 2019/20 had totalled £178k, which it had subsequently been agreed would be used in full to net off their 2020/21 fee of £500k.  Given the ongoing uncertainty relating to the budget contribution, interruption to usual service delivery during the Covid pandemic and aim to keep expenditure to a minimum a further underspend of approx. £169k had been forecast for Harrow during 2020/21.  In addition members noted that Brent also held a legal reserve on behalf of the Consortium of which £66k belonged to Harrow and a Proceeds of Crime reserve of which £250k belonged to Harrow.

In terms of a way forward, the Board were advised of the budget proposals developed in order to achieve the reduction in annual consortium fee to £300k requested by Harrow, as detailed within section 3.8 of the report.  This outlined how the budget would need to be adjusted to reflect Harrow’s reduced contribution and their contribution towards the shared costs, which included employee costs for staff working across both boroughs as well as shared assets split between Brent and Harrow.

As part of these adjustments there would be a requirement to reduce the staffing resource for Harrow, with the proposals detailed in section 3.9 – 3.13 of the report.  The Board noted this would result in a reduced staffing resource of 2.5 Enforcement Officers, 0.5 Team Leader and 0.5 Senior Regulatory Service Manager posts for the Harrow team.  In order to achieve these reductions it would be necessary to delete a vacant Harrow Enforcement Officer post, keep the Senior Prosecutor post vacant and fund the Financial Investigators from Brent’s Proceeds of Crime reserves.  It would also require a reduction in Team Leader support with only one provided to cover both teams.  In terms of prosecutions, this would also require legal cases to be conducted by the Senior Regulatory Service Manager or legal counsel in more complex matters.  Although not currently making routine use of the Services Financial Investigators for proceeds of crime investigations, Members also noted that should Harrow want to use these services they would either have to pay for them or make arrangements to drawdown from their share of the Proceeds of Crime reserves.

Having presented the proposals, the Board were then advised of the risks associated with the reduced staffing capacity, as detailed within sections 3.14 – 3.29 of the report, along with the measures in place in order to assist in partially mitigating these including the careful financial management of the service undertaken to date, establishment of a revised team structure and level of shared knowledge available.  It was noted, however, that there would also be a need for Harrow to increase its focus on priority areas of work and to acknowledge the change in budget position would lead to a reduction in overall service levels within their area.

The following issues were then raised by members of the Board in response to the report:

·                Members, whilst recognising the reasons for the budget reductions being sought, expressed disappointment at the impact on the service given the high level of service provided.  Reference was also made to section 3.17 and the findings from the Audit Scotland review regarding the number of staff if was felt required to deliver the minimum level of standards in relation to a Trading Standards Service.  In response Simon Legg advised members that the revised structure would ensure a minimal level of staff remained in place when assessed across the consortium, although there would be a need to prioritise resources on a risk management based approach to ensure capacity remained to meet the increasing demands on the service arising from the Covid pandemic and Brexit as well as the increase in statutory responsibilities.

·                Details were also sought as to whether the existing budget and legal reserves available would be sufficient to cover, over a longer term basis, the costs associated with an increase in use of counsel or periods of high demand or more complex and expensive legal cases.  Whilst members were advised it was anticipated that the reserves held would be sufficient to provide access to additional funds (should these be required in specific one off circumstances) there would be an associated risk under this approach and need to ensure arrangements were made for the reserve to be replenished following use.

·                Support was expressed by the Board towards the proposed creation of a new statutory duty for minimum standards to be developed for Trading Standards teams supported by the provision of ring-fenced resources to ensure they could be delivered, especially linked to the increased demand on the service as a result of consumer and tariff issues related to Brexit and also the Covid pandemic.  Members were also keen to ensure that the necessary signposting was established to direct residents and other stakeholders to further assistance and guidance.

·                In response to a final issue raised regarding investigations required on a cross borough basis, members were advised that these would continue in the same way as present.

Having considered and commented on the report the Board RESOLVED: To note the impact of the reduced budget for the consortium as detailed within the report and associated risks identified.