I hope I can answer the noble Lord’s question. Trading standards play a critical role in protecting consumers and business in their local authority areas, in particular from rogue traders, but the responsibility was split between local authority trading standards services and the OFT creating an enforcement gap. While BIS provided some support for regional and national enforcement schemes, the NTSB has been formed specifically to tackle cross-boundary and national threats.
The noble Lord, Lord Borrie, asked whether members of the local authority are members of the NTSB, which goes a little further in answering his original question. The answer is no. Heads of local authority trading standards comprise the NTSB. There is a political oversight group made up of representatives of local government and the LGA which connects local decision-making with national enforcement.
The noble Lord, Lord Borrie, was concerned that the OFT will not oversee enforcement supervision. In this case, the OFT, Trading Standards and other enforcers
will share a power to enforce. This will ensure that while the OFT will be able to continue to use its expertise in this area, other enforcers, including Trading Standards, will take up cases that more appropriately fall to them. Trading Standards will act as the lead enforcers of this legislation and will retain a duty to enforce the regulations, except in the case of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. That is complex, but I hope it explains that slightly more clearly.
The noble Lord, Lord Whitty, asked how Citizens Advice will be accountable for Consumer Direct and consumer education. The work of the Citizens Advice service on Consumer Direct will be accountable to the Consumer Minister through grant arrangements set up by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. These grant arrangements will set out challenging performance targets which will be closely monitored by the department. I can reassure the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, that Citizens Advice will take on the role of consumer education.
The noble Lord, Lord Whitty, also asked whether Citizens Advice could be subject to a judicial review. There is a low risk that Citizens Advice may be subject to a judicial review in relation to the function transferred. However, it is more likely that other legal claims will be brought, such as negligence. The Citizens Advice services have taken their own advice on this risk and have given their consent to the transfer of the consumer advice functions on that basis.
The noble Lord, Lord Whitty, wanted to clarify who SMEs will receive advice from. Most business-facing advice and education will transfer from the OFT to the Trading Standards Institute from 1 April 2014, but businesses seeking advice as consumers will be able to access Consumer Direct as before.
The noble Lord, Lord Whitty, also asked for clarification on whether the NTSB will quality control Trading Standards. The NTSB itself, and the teams that it sponsors, are subject to tight funding terms and conditions to ensure that they deliver against business priorities. Local trading standards are subject to local government procedures. The noble Lord also raised concerns about cuts to local trading standards services. The provision of local trading standards services is a matter for individual local authorities, and even in the current climate, they will continue to take local and pan-local cases.
The intention is that there will be specific funding for enforcement against national threats separate from the budget for local issues. There are plenty of examples of cases where local officers have dealt with complex cases successfully. The NTSB will ensure that resources are allocated to large cases as and when appropriate. In addition, local officers often have a culture of working with business to resolve problems. I believe that trading standards services have already demonstrated their ability and professionalism over many years, and I hope that the noble Lord would agree with that.