Who We Are

Trading Standards Scotland (TSS) is the national team for trading standards in Scotland. The team is funded by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and managed by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA); the representative body of local government in Scotland.

Political governance is currently provided by the TSS Governance Board, comprising all major political parties in Scotland and chaired by the Chair of the COSLA Community Wellbeing Board.

What We Do

Operationally, TSS has a duty to coordinate and enforce cross boundary and national casework as well as undertake the specialist functions of tackling illegal money lending and e-crime. It is a resource intended to add capacity to local authority trading standards teams in these areas of activity.

TSS has also developed an intelligence gathering and analysis function. This allows the national team to identify a picture of Level 2 criminal activity (activity that takes place across council and/or national boundaries) and has implemented a tasking and coordination process to determine the allocation of resource to tackle it.

For the current financial year (2021/22), TSS has chosen to focus on four specific problem areas:

• Doorstep Crime
• Misleading Energy Marketing
• Illicit Puppy Trade
• Counterfeit Goods Online

As an integral part of COSLA, TSS is at the heart of policy development for local government and works closely with a number of partners including Police Scotland, the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards Scotland (SCOTSS), Advice Direct Scotland, Citizens Advice Scotland and Scottish Government to strengthen protection for Scottish consumers.