Government must urgently allocate funding to tackle the rogue illicit traders causing “enormous damage” to responsible retailers, ACS has said.
The trade body said rogue traders operating through pop-up shops, mini marts and barber shops were continuing to sell a broad range of stolen, illicit and dangerous products to communities.
“This is not a fair fight for responsible convenience stores, who have a long list of procedures in place to ensure that they both follow and enforce the law,” said ACS CEO Ed Woodall. “Rogue traders don’t have any of that, and yet still carry on without fear of reproach from the enforcement community which is drastically under-resourced to deal with the problem.
“The government has established a cross-departmental taskforce to address the problem of rogue traders, but we need action now. There’s an additional £10m fund dedicated to tackling the illicit trade which needs to be allocated urgently to support the responsible retailers that are suffering as a result of those who don’t follow the rules and don’t see any consequences.”
The ACS has been campaigning for the government to do more to tackle illicit traders, often linked to organised crime, for several years.
A report from the trade body in 2024 warned Trading Standards would need an additional £140m and hundreds of enforcement officers to deal with the growing problem of illicit trade.
In March this year, ACS, along with the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, the National Business Crime Centre and Labour MPs Melanie Onn, Sadik Al-Hassan and Julie Minns, wrote to consumer protection minister Kate Dearden calling for commitments.
The letter demanded more funding for Trading Standards teams to enforce in local communities. It called for measures to make it easier to report illicit activity, as local Trading Standards teams can be difficult to contact and reporting through Citizens Advice can be inconsistent.
The letter also called for new legal powers for police to access tobacco track and trace data to support enforcement action.
The ACS’s new call today comes after a BBC investigation revealed cocaine, cannabis, laughing gas and prescription pills were being offered for sale in mini-marts on UK high streets.
Undercover researchers secretly filmed in shops across four neighbouring West Midlands towns who were readily offered these substances. A man working behind a counter at a mini-mart in Cradley Heath said: “I’ve got weed, coke, everything. Whatever you want, I can sort you out.”
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