Trading Standards Staffing Levels
Case reference FOI2026/01867
Received 4 August 2026
Published 8 September 2026
Request
A) Staffing levels
1) How many FTE members of staff were employed by your trading standards service in 2018/19?
2) How many FTE members of staff were employed by your trading standards service in 2022/23?
3) How many FTE members of staff were employed by your trading standards service in 2025/26?
4) How many FTE vacancies (if any) were your trading standards service carrying in 2018/19?
5) How many FTE vacancies (if any) were your trading standards service carrying in 2022/23?
6) How many FTE vacancies (if any) were your trading standards service carrying in 2025/26?
B) Trading standards activities
1) How many enforcement visits were carried out by your trading standards service in 2018/19?
2) How many enforcement visits were carried out by your trading standards service in 2022/23?
3) How many enforcement visits were carried out by your trading standards service in 2025/26?
4) How many prosecutions were commenced by your trading standards service in 2019/19?
5) How many prosecutions were commenced by your trading standards service in 2022/23?
6) How many prosecutions were commenced by your trading standards service in 2025/26?
7) How many informal cautions, letters of advice and written warnings were issued by your trading standards service in 2018/19?
8) How many informal cautions, letters of advice and written warnings were issued by your trading standards service in 2022/23?
9) How many informal cautions, letters of advice and written warnings were issued by your trading standards service in 2025/26?
10) How many age restricted test purchases (e.g. alcohol and tobacco, vapes, fireworks, knives etc) were carried out by your trading standards service in 2018/19?
11) How many age restricted test purchases (e.g. alcohol and tobacco, vapes, fireworks, knives etc) were carried out by your trading standards service in 2022/23?
12) How many age restricted test purchases (e.g. alcohol and tobacco, vapes, fireworks, knives etc) were carried out by your trading standards service in 2025/26?
13) How many shop closures (either temporary or permanent) were ordered by your trading standards service in 2018/19?
14) How many shop closures (either temporary or permanent) were ordered by your trading standards service in 2022/23?
15) How many shop closures (either temporary or permanent) were ordered by your trading standards service in 2025/26?
16) How many premises in your council area had their licences revoked or removed following concerns raised by your trading standards service in 2018/19?
17) How many premises in your council area had their licences revoked or removed following concerns raised by your trading standards service in 2022/23?
18) How many premises in your council area had their licences revoked or removed following concerns raised by your trading standards service in 2025/26?
Response
A) Staffing levels
1) How many FTE members of staff were employed by your trading standards service in 2018/19?
Answer: As at 31/03/2019: 10.41 FTE staff employed.
2) How many FTE members of staff were employed by your trading standards service in 2022/23?
Answer: As at 31/03/2023: 9 FTE staff employed.
3) How many FTE members of staff were employed by your trading standards service in 2025/26?
Answer: As at 31/03/2026: 7 FTE staff employed.
4) How many FTE vacancies (if any) were your trading standards service carrying in 2018/19?
Answer: As at 31/03/2019: 2 FTE vacancies.
5) How many FTE vacancies (if any) were your trading standards service carrying in 2022/23?
Answer: As at 31/03/2023: 0 FTE vacancies.
6) How many FTE vacancies (if any) were your trading standards service carrying in 2025/26?
Answer: As at 31/03/2026: 0 FTE vacancies.
B) Trading standards activities
1) How many enforcement visits were carried out by your trading standards service in 2018/19?
Answer: 273 – This number includes all visits to trade premises which including inspections, enforcement visits, advisory visits, sampling conducted by the trading standards team only.
2) How many enforcement visits were carried out by your trading standards service in 2022/23?
Answer: 361 – This number includes all visits to trade premises which including inspections, enforcement visits, advisory visits, sampling conducted by the trading standards team only.
3) How many enforcement visits were carried out by your trading standards service in 2025/26?
Answer: 291 – This number includes all visits to trade premises which including inspections, enforcement visits, advisory visits, sampling conducted by the trading standards team only.
4) How many prosecutions were commenced by your trading standards service in 2019/19?
Answer: 8
5) How many prosecutions were commenced by your trading standards service in 2022/23?
Answer: 13
6) How many prosecutions were commenced by your trading standards service in 2025/26?
Answer: 2
7) How many informal cautions, letters of advice and written warnings were issued by your trading standards service in 2018/19?
Answer: Informal Cautions - 0
Written Warnings - 37
Individual letters of advice - The individual letter of advice information for Part B questions 7, 8 and 9 is not held in a form that would enable it to be located, retrieved and extracted within the Appropriate Time Limit which equates to 18 hours as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limits and Fees) Regulations 2004.
Our electronic reporting systems are unable to run a report for this information. To ascertain the data requested, officers would need to manually check individual files for this information. An initial search has shown that a total of 7,545 records (2,766 records for 2018/19, 2,560 records for 2022/23 and 2,219 records for 2025/26) would need to be checked for this information, and it is estimated that it would take 5 minutes to check each file. Once the details had been identified this would need to be noted and once all files had been checked in this way, the total figures requested could be calculated.
This would at a conservative estimate take at least 628 hours (230.5 hours for 2018/19, 213.3 hours for 2022/23 and 184.9 hours for 2025/26) to complete. Where the Limit is exceeded Public Authorities are not obliged to supply the information requested by virtue of S12 of the Act. Please take this letter as a refusal notice under S17 of the Act.
8) How many informal cautions, letters of advice and written warnings were issued by your trading standards service in 2022/23?
Answer: Informal Cautions - 0
Written Warning - 34
Individual letters of advice - please see the response provided for question 7 above.
9) How many informal cautions, letters of advice and written warnings were issued by your trading standards service in 2025/26?
Answer: Informal Cautions - 0
Written Warning - 16
Individual letters of advice - please see the response provided for question 7 above.
10) How many age restricted test purchases (e.g. alcohol and tobacco, vapes, fireworks, knives etc) were carried out by your trading standards service in 2018/19?
Answer: This information is not held, due to our retention policies.
11) How many age restricted test purchases (e.g. alcohol and tobacco, vapes, fireworks, knives etc) were carried out by your trading standards service in 2022/23?
Answer: 0
12) How many age restricted test purchases (e.g. alcohol and tobacco, vapes, fireworks, knives etc) were carried out by your trading standards service in 2025/26?
Answer: 22
13) How many shop closures (either temporary or permanent) were ordered by your trading standards service in 2018/19?
Answer: 1
14) How many shop closures (either temporary or permanent) were ordered by your trading standards service in 2022/23?
Answer: 0
15) How many shop closures (either temporary or permanent) were ordered by your trading standards service in 2025/26?
Answer: 6
16) How many premises in your council area had their licences revoked or removed following concerns raised by your trading standards service in 2018/19?
Answer: 0
17) How many premises in your council area had their licences revoked or removed following concerns raised by your trading standards service in 2022/23?
Answer: 0
18) How many premises in your council area had their licences revoked or removed following concerns raised by your trading standards service in 2025/26?
Answer: 2
Documents
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