Fed welcomes work of National Trading Standards

The Fed has welcomed the work of National Trading Standards to tackle illicit tobacco in direct partnership with HMRC – and is continuing its call for central government to provide greater priority and resourcing for trading standards across the UK.

It was recently announced that the new enforcement approach which had taken effect since July 2023 as part of Operation CeCe between National Trading Standards (NTS), local authority Trading Standards, Scottish Trading Standards Services and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) had led to £1.4million in civil penalties being issued against rogue traders and individuals selling illegal tobacco products.

National Trading Standards had notified that retailers who sell illicit tobacco risk being removed from the Tobacco Track and Trace (TT&T) system which is required to be part of the legitimate UK tobacco market as well as being fined up to £10,000.

The Fed’s National President Hetal Patel said: “The Fed knows how much damage rogue trade and illicit tobacco sales do to undermine the work of legitimate independent retailers – and we agree with National Trading Standards that Illicit tobacco undermines legitimate businesses by undercutting the vast majority of retailers who do the right thing, whilst reducing the government’s tax base and fuelling other crimes.

“Ahead of the last Budget, and ahead of the upcoming Scottish and Welsh elections, we have called on the government to give greater resources to trading standards and will follow the work of Operation CeCe with interest.”

Lord Bichard, Chair, National Trading Standards, said: “Illegal tobacco harms communities, undermines legitimate retailers and fuels wider criminal activity. The vast majority of retailers play by the rules. These sanctions demonstrate that we are taking decisive action against those who don’t.”