What to expect when trading standards visits your shop

These powers apply across the UK. Environmental health, fire safety and licensing officers work under their own rules, which differ.

Who visits your shop

Trading standards officers work for your local council and enforce consumer law, including weights and measures, product safety and age-restricted sales. A visit can be a purchase, an observation or an inspection, and each has different notice rules.

When an officer must warn you

An officer can enter any part of your shop the public can enter, at any reasonable time, to buy goods, look at stock on sale or watch how you trade. That includes outside opening hours. The officer needs no notice and no warrant. A routine inspection of the rest of your premises and your records is different, because the officer must give you written notice first.

If a notice arrives

Keep the notice and record the day it reached you, because the gap runs from receipt to entry. You can waive the notice if you want the inspection to go ahead sooner. You do not have to.

When an officer arrives

An officer entering under the general power of entry must show you evidence of identity and authority. Ask to see it and note the officer's name, council and the time. Outside a routine inspection, the officer must also give you a document that sets out why entry is necessary and refers to the obstruction offence. Neither duty applies if it is not reasonably practicable to comply.

Your rights during an inspection

• an officer can require documents you must keep by law without any suspicion
• for other documents, the officer needs a reasonable suspicion of a breach, or a need to check whether they may be evidence
• you do not have to produce documents covered by legal professional privilege
• you do not have to answer a question if the answer might incriminate you
• an officer who seizes goods or documents must take reasonable steps to tell you and give you a written record of what was taken

The council must tell you the result of any test on goods it seized from you. It must do the same for goods it bought, if proceedings or a notice follow. Where reasonably practicable, it must let you have the goods tested too.

Warrants

If you refuse access, an officer can apply to a court for a warrant after telling you of the intention to apply. A warrant can also be sought without a refusal, where notice would risk goods or documents being hidden, or where the premises are empty or you are absent and waiting could defeat the purpose. A warrant allows entry at any reasonable time, using reasonable force.

Hiding stock or misleading an officer

Do not hide stock or documents, and do not give an officer a statement you know is false or recklessly make one. These are offences.

Test purchases of age-restricted goods

Councils check age-restricted sales by sending a test purchaser, often under 18, to try to buy goods such as alcohol, tobacco or vapes. You get no notice. In England and Wales, an under-18 commits no offence by buying alcohol at the request of a weights and measures inspector acting in the course of duty.

From 29 October 2026, officers who enforce Part 1 of the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 in England and Wales (sale and distribution of tobacco, vapes and nicotine products) can use the Schedule 5 powers of entry and inspection.

Councils in England and Wales normally write to the business after a test. Check that the letter names the product, the law, the outcome and whether the seller asked for proof of age. Keep it with your training and refusals records.

Keep these ready for a visit

• records the law requires you to keep
• packaged goods records, if you pack goods for sale (the Weights and Measures (Packaged Goods) Regulations 2006)
• weighing and measuring equipment you use for trade, which an officer can test
• evidence of your age checks, such as a written policy, staff training records, till prompts and a refusals log
• your Primary Authority advice and any inspection plan, if you have a partnership

Get advice before a visit

Councils give advice as well as enforce, so ask your local trading standards service before an officer calls.

Primary Authority is a legal partnership with one council that gives you advice other councils must respect. Before another council takes enforcement action against you, it must notify your primary authority. The primary authority can direct it not to proceed if the action conflicts with the advice it gave you. Urgent action to avoid a significant risk of serious harm to health, the environment or consumers' financial interests is outside that rule.

Your primary authority can also write an inspection plan that tells other councils how to inspect you, including sampling visits and test purchases. A partnership does not stop visits.

If a council goes ahead with action despite your partnership, you can apply to the Secretary of State for consent to refer the dispute for a decision.

If you sell tobacco, vapes or nicotine products, ask OPSS before you apply. OPSS does not nominate a partnership with the tobacco industry or with those seeking to further its interests.

Where to get help

For a notice or a visit, contact your local trading standards service. In Northern Ireland, contact the Trading Standards Service Businessline. For a Primary Authority partnership, contact the OPSS Primary Authority team.