OFT says changes to consumer organisations will weaken regime

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said the Government's plans to radically reform the UK's consumer protection regime could lead to a weakening of the way consumer law is enforced.

The Government's consumer watchdog also said in its response to the proposed changes that while it supports the aim of reducing complexity and overlap, it had sympathy with the views already expressed by organisations such as Consumer Focus, "that this is a missed opportunity to consider bigger changes that would make consumer protection 'fit for the 21st Century' ".

The plans announced by the Government in June would essentially split the way consumer protection in the UK is currently enforced.

In its review of publically funded bodies last November, the Government had already announced that it would axe Consumer Focus and farm out the consumer-related protection, advice, advocacy and research work carried out by this organisation and the OFT to other organisations.

It is planned that the charity, Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB), will be principally responsible for developing and delivering consumer advice and assistance. Local Trading Standards offices would have to take on a significant increase in regional and national enforcement actions.

There are also plans to create a new Trading Standards Policy Board (TSPB) which would take on "large complex [consumer] cases which may ... raise novel legal issues across the UK".

However, both Trading Standards and individual CAB bodies around the country are facing huge cuts to their budgets. Funding for local CAB and Trading Standards  for example comes from a number of sources that have had to make huge budgetary cuts,  such as local authorities. 

The OFT also said it raised the question about the future of consumer educational campaigns it runs in conjunction with Trading Standards, such as its annual Scamnesty awareness month and website sweeps when it closes down fraudulent sites.

The OFT warned that these financial and structural constraints on both CAB and Trading Standard, coupled with the lack of a central body such as itself to coordinate and oversee consumer protection, means the proposed reforms will lead to "a weakening of the consumer protection regime's capacity to protect consumers where they need it most."