The transfer of the Trading Standards statutory responsibilities from Torbay Council to Devon County Council, to join the existing Devon and Somerset Trading Standards Partnership.

(i)       that the Trading Standards Service be transferred to Devon County Council from the 1 April 2017 (or as soon as practicable afterwards) with the Assistant Director (Community and Customer Services) being given delegated authority to give effect to the transfer; and

(ii)      that the Chief Executive be recommended to appoint the Assistant Director (Community and Customer Services) and the Executive Lead for Environment as the Council’s representatives on the Devon and Somerset Trading Standards Partnership Board in accordance with paragraph 1.21 of the Officer Scheme of Delegation.

Transferring the Trading Standards Service to Devon County Council will give the Service resilience and consistency and will provide the residents of Torbay with better and future proofed services.

The current size of the Devon and Somerset Trading Standards Partnership allows innovation and prevention to form part of their work, so in time reducing the demands on the service.  It should also raise additional income for the Council.

Alternative options were set out in the submitted report but were not discussed at the meeting.

This decision will come into force and may be implemented on Tuesday, 31 January 2017 unless the call-in procedure is triggered (as set out in the Standing Orders in relation to Overview and Scrutiny).

The submitted report set out a proposal to transfer the current Torbay Council Trading Standards Service to Devon County Council to join the existing Devon and Somerset Trading Standards Partnership, run by Devon County Council.  There was no resilience with the current team and therefore it was becoming increasingly difficult for the Service to meet Torbay Council’s statutory obligations and a long term solution was required. 

The Mayor considered the recommendations of the Policy Development and Decision Group (Joint Operations Team) made on 18 January 2017 and his decision is set out above.

None