The British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) has cautioned that criminals are undermining legitimate retail businesses amid the decline of trading standards, following a Which? investigation.
The data revealed that 36 trading standards services reported no criminal prosecutions during the 2023-24 financial year, with some teams having fewer than one member of staff per 100,000 people.
Additionally, proactive inspections and enforcement of counterfeit goods, scams and other criminal activities have been deprioritised by several teams.
The Bira said the findings highlighted how law-abiding retailers were being disadvantaged by criminals who knew they faced virtually no consequences for their actions.
The Which? report documented cases such as dangerous counterfeit products being sold via online marketplaces, whilst legitimate businesses struggled to compete against illegal operators.
Related Story
Bira CEO Andrew Goodacre said: “This Which? report is in line with our fears that we are losing control of the high streets and undermining legitimate independent retailers.
“We absolutely need well-resourced trading standards teams to deal with the multitude of issues caused by criminals exploiting the lack of intervention in their criminal activities.”
Bira has called for urgent government action to properly resource trading standards teams and ensure they could effectively investigate and prosecute rogue traders.
Goodacre added: “From selling illegal products, re-selling stolen items to selling fake items, it seems that criminal activity is growing whilst responsible, legal retailers suffer with a lack of support. The new small business strategy does not fully address these concerns.”
The news comes as retail crime continues to soar, with shoplifting across England and Wales recently hitting its highest rate in over two decades.
The amount of incidents rose 20% to 530,643 during the year to the end of March, marking the highest number recorded by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) since records began in 2003.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
