Welcome to SCOTSS, representing the trading standards service in Scotland.

The Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTSS), is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SC047951). Our members are professional trading standards managers representing every Scottish local authority trading standards service.

The Society liaises with local council colleagues across the UK, and engages with government and others around the operation of the consumer protection landscape, providing leadership and consistency to Scotland's 31 trading standards teams. We aim to educate, coordinate, and support.

SCOTSS also maintains the Approved Trader database which is an online portal to all of Scotland's trading standards run assured trader schemes, try it...it's free!

LOCATIONS

Apologies but we are having technical difficulties with our office location database, please click here and follow the instructions to to find your nearest trading standards office location in the UK courtesy of CTSI, the only reguarly updated location database.


NEWS

Press article

Scottish Trading Standards find that consumers across Scotland are continuing to lose out from pricing issues in convenience stores and unacceptable levels of short-weight goods that together are costing Scottish consumers £millions.

Following two previous investigations at the end of 2022 that found a range of pricing errors in shops across Scotland, to the detriment of consumers, and also short-weight issues with prepacked goods, similar investigations were carried out at the end of 2023 to find out if the situation had improved. On the pricing side the investigation saw participation from 18 local authorities, checking compliance with pricing rules outlined in the Price Marking Order 2004 and the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, and also taking account of work done by the Competition and Markets Authority on Unit Pricing10. The focus was on small to medium convenience stores following results from 2022, and a total of 417 convenience stores were visited, encompassing both independent shops and small to medium-sized chained businesses. The results showed that there had been no improvement from the 2022 investigation.

A full report can be found on the SCOTSS website here.

Alexandra Connell, Chair of SCOTSS commented:
“Transparency in pricing is at the heart of fair trade in goods and is a core issue for Trading Standards teams across Scotland, making sure that consumers pay the correct price for their purchases and that businesses are diligent in presenting goods for sale accurately and legally. With a continuing cost of living crisis, it is important that the processes and systems that should be in place are working properly and that consumers pay the correct amount for their shopping. My advice to shoppers is always check prices carefully when in store and make sure you have been properly charged at the till. “

She continued:
“Consumers should always get what they pay for, and fair measurement is a centuries old principle at the heart of fair trade in goods and at the heart of our profession, making sure that consumers get what they pay for and that businesses are weighing and measuring goods accurately. As with the pricing issues, and the key importance of weights and measures to the overall market, metrological systems must be working properly.”