Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to strengthen the powers of consumer enforcement bodies.

The powers available to consumer enforcement bodies were recently updated.

The Consumer Rights Act (CRA) came into force 1 October 2015 and has given consumer enforcement bodies the power to obtain collective redress for consumers in the civil courts.

Trading Standards Officers have a range of additional powers dependent upon the legislation they are enforcing. These include the power to require traders to produce documents relating to their business and powers to seize and detain goods and documents in certain circumstances.