Clackmannanshire Council Online

Trading Standards

Trading Standards

Clackmannanshire Council has entered into a joint working arrangement with Stirling Council to ensure delivery of the best possible trading standards service. The Team will deal with all issues relating to fair trading and consumer protection.

If you have a problem with goods or services you have bought or wish to report someone who is selling fake or unsafe goods, we would ask that initial requests should, at present, be directed to our partner agency Advice Direct Scotland who can be contacted on 0808 164 6000 or via the consumer advice website.

You can also visit Stirling Council's Trading Standards web pages for more information.

More details of our services are given below together with links to other sites of interest.

Consumer Protection

Consumer Protection includes ensuring you get what you ask for when you buy goods. This means that traders have to describe products correctly and ensure that they give you the quantity they promised, like a full measure of whisky or 100 paper clips in a packet. It must also be what it says and not a forgery.

Products sold must also be safe which means you should not be electrocuted by your washing machine and your furniture should not readily go on fire if you drop your cigarette.

As you might imagine there are many laws and standards affecting the sale of goods and these are mostly enforced by Trading Standards through regular inspections of premises throughout the area.

Although most equipment sold is fairly safe it can easily be misused despite good instructions. Accidents in the home are a great cause of death and injury and so home safety is another step in consumer protection. Trading Standards regularly publicise the issue and sometimes hold road shows to keep everyone aware of this important subject.

Fair Trading

Fair Trading concerns issues like guarantees, special offers, and discounts. Wherever loans or easy repayment offers are made the rate of interest shown must be accurate and an example given so you can easily compare one trader's loan against another.

These aspects are also checked when visiting or inspecting premises.

Advice

Initial requests for advice should, at present, be directed to our partner agency Advice Direct Scotland who can be contacted on 0808 164 6000 or via the consumer advice website.

Their advisers will:

• Give you practical advice on how to resolve your consumer problem
• Inform you of the consumer laws which may apply to your situation
• Pass relevant information to the appropriate Trading Standards authority for consideration/further investigation

They cannot:

• Obtain a refund for you, or take court action for you
• Recommend a business or tell which particular businesses to avoid
• Investigate complaints about food hygiene or food standards, this is dealt with by Environmental Health
• We will continue to monitor complaints and enquiries about unfair trading or pricing practices and consumer safety issues that are received via Advice Direct Scotland.  These will be assessed and dealt with on a case-by-case basis, and in accordance with the present Scottish Government and NHS requirements.

If you are looking for a business to undertake works for you, please visit the Approved Trader portal. 

Licensing - Petroleum/Explosives

Other issues dealt with by Trading Standards are the licensing/registration of petroleum and explosives (for instance fireworks). Please contact us using the details below if you require more information on petroleum or explosives licensing/registration.

Note: Sellers of Part II poisons no longer require to register with the local authority. However, certain chemicals and regulated substances can be used in the illicit manufacture of explosives or in such a way as to cause harm. From 3rd March 2016, members of the public who want to possess or use these chemicals must hold an Explosives Precursors and Poisons (EPP) licence issued by the Home Office.