The Trading Standards Joint Advisory Board of Brent Council ¹ was scheduled to meet on Wednesday 5 November 2025 to discuss a mid-year review of Trading Standards and an update on Operation CeCe. The meeting was also scheduled to include the election of a chair, and approval of the minutes from the previous meeting.

Operation CeCe Update

The board was scheduled to receive an update on Operation CeCe (Op CeCe), a National Trading Standards (NTS) initiative in partnership with His Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) that aims to tackle illegal tobacco.

According to the report pack, Op CeCe commenced in January 2021 with the objective of disrupting the illegal tobacco trade within England and Wales. Local authorities such as Brent and Harrow were able to apply to London Trading Standards (LTS) for funding to support local efforts, specifically for test purchasing and enforcement days using sniffer dogs. The funding does not extend to investigations, prosecutions or underage test purchase operations.

The report pack stated that between March 2021 and September 2025, Brent and Harrow Trading Standards conducted 184 enforcement visits to businesses based on intelligence and complaints. These visits resulted in the seizure of:

• More than 480,580 sticks of illegal cigarettes
• 10kg of hand rolling tobacco
• 23kg of smokeless tobacco
• 115kg of shisha products

The report pack also noted that 63 letters of warning and 10 simple cautions were issued to business owners, companies, and/or its directors. 24 cases have been concluded in court following legal proceedings, resulting in fines exceeding £38,000 and costs of £25,000.

Trading Standards Mid-Year Review

The board was scheduled to discuss the Trading Standards Mid-Year Report 2025/26, which provides an update on the service's performance, key achievements, and challenges faced during the first six months of the financial year.

According to the report pack, the Trading Standards Service operates on a joint consortium basis between Brent and Harrow, with Brent being the host authority. The service aims to support local legitimate businesses by ensuring compliance with relevant legislation and protecting consumers.

The report pack included some statistics on the work of the Trading Standards service:

2116 Service requests received during this period from various sources

960 Were further analysed by the teams

512 Further analysed relating to a Brent business or resident

448 Further analysed relating to a Harrow business or resident

70 Directly from a business (32 Brent and 38 Harrow )

The report pack stated that since April 2025, two new pieces of legislation have come into force which are enforced by Trading Standards: the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA), and the Environmental Protection (Single-use Vapes) (England) Regulations 2024.

The report pack also noted that Trading Standards has an array of penalties available where businesses deliberately break the law, ignore advice, or cause serious harm, ranging from written warnings and cautions to monetary penalties, undertakings, fines, and imprisonment.

Other Business

The agenda included the election of a chair from the members of the London Borough of Harrow for the meeting. The board was also scheduled to approve the minutes of the previous meeting held on Wednesday 4 June 2025 ².