The Trading Standards Joint Advisory Board is scheduled to meet on Wednesday 5 November 2025 to discuss the Trading Standards mid-year review, and to receive an update on Operation CeCe.

Trading Standards Mid-Year Review

The Trading Standards Mid-Year Review report is to provide an update on the performance of the Trading Standards Service in Brent and Harrow midway through the year, highlighting key achievements and challenges.

The report notes that 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 they comply with relevant legislation and protect consumers.

According to the Mid-Year Report, the service received 2,116 service requests, with 960 being further analysed by the teams. Of these, 512 related to a Brent business or resident and 448 related to a Harrow business or resident. 70 requests came directly from businesses, 32 from Brent and 38 from Harrow.

The report also highlights several activities undertaken by the service, including:

• Visits to 22 businesses to check for compliance relating to the sales of illicit tobacco, 10 in Brent and 12 in Harrow.
• Visits to 27 high-risk and most complained about businesses, 15 in Brent and 12 in Harrow.
• Enforcement visits to 120 businesses to ensure compliance with the law and provide advice.
• Testing of 38 businesses for underage sales of products such as vapes, alcohol and cigarettes, with a failure rate of 15%.
• Issuing £12,722 in monetary penalties and final notices to agents for noncompliance.
• A confiscation order of £193,376 made by the courts in a Proceeds of Crime Case.

The report also includes a table showing the projected goals of the respective teams during 2025/26 against what has been achieved so far.

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), which replaces the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.
• The Environmental Protection (Single-use Vapes) (England) Regulations 2024, which bans the sale and supply of single-use vapes.

Operation CeCe Update

The Operation CeCe (Op CeCe) Update Report is to provide an update on Op CeCe, a National Trading Standards (NTS) initiative in partnership with His Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to tackle illegal tobacco.

The report explains that Op CeCe commenced in January 2021 with the aim of disrupting the sale and supply of illicit tobacco products such as cigarettes, hand rolling tobacco and shisha¹.

The report states that the Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations 2015 requires certain tobacco products to be in standardised packaging, and the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 lays down the requirements of 'the health warnings'.

The report notes that between March 2021 and September 2025, Brent and Harrow Trading Standards applied to London Trading Standards (LTS) for funding to help tackle the issue of illegal tobacco within their boroughs.

According to the Op CeCe Update Report:

• Trading Standards officers have carried out 184 enforcement visits to businesses to check compliance.
• More than 480,580 sticks of illegal cigarettes, 10kg of hand rolling tobacco, 23kg of smokeless tobacco and 115kg of shisha products have been seized.
• 63 letters of warnings and 10 simple cautions have been issued to business owners, companies and/or its directors.
• 24 cases have been concluded in court following legal proceedings, resulting in fines collectively exceeding £38,000 and costs of £25,000.

Other items

• The Trading Standards Joint Advisory Board will elect a chair for the meeting from the London Borough of Harrow membership.
• The Trading Standards Joint Advisory Board will note the dates for the schedule of meetings agreed between Brent & Harrow for the 2025-26 Municipal Year as follows: Thursday 5 March 2026 at 6pm to be hosted (online) by the London Borough of Brent.
• The Trading Standards Joint Advisory Board will approve the minutes of the previous meeting held on Wednesday 4 June 2025. Councillor Krupa Sheth was elected chair of that meeting. The minutes record that the Trading Standards Annual Report 2024-25 was presented, and that a report was presented regarding proposals to implement age verification checks and to seek control of the doorstep dropping of knives and bladed articles to greater protect young people from knife crime, referred to as 'Ronan's Law'.