I’m writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act.

1. A list of trading standards inspections and visits to retail premises related to fair pricing (the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and Price Marking Order 2004) since the 1 January 2021, including the date, full street address, premises name and details of any breaches discovered
Please see attached spreadsheet which lists the available data relating to inspections carried out in Wokingham in relation to fair pricing. The database does not distinguish between inspections carried out under the Price Marking Order 2004 and the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. Some historical data is not available due to a change of database in 2022. The data has been redacted by removing the inspector’s name due to this being deemed personal data.

2. All letters sent to stores following inspections related to the above issues over the above time period.
See below

3. A copy of every post-visit/inspection report generated related to the above issues over the above time period.
It is customary for inspection reports to be scanned onto the database at the conclusion of a visit. There is currently a backlog of forms that require scanning. Collation of this documentation would be extremely time consuming. Each form would need to be located and matched to its corresponding visit. The paperwork would then need to be redacted to remove the inspector’s name (personal data) and any data not related to pricing. The paperwork would then need to be scanned again and collated. I estimate that carrying out this task would take an absolute minimum of 15-20 minutes per form. There are 333 inspections on the attached spreadsheet. It would therefore take in excess of 80 hours to carry out this task which exceeds the 18 hour “appropriate limit”. The same logic would apply to any letters sent to the trade in this regard.

With the CMA recently releasing a report on failures by retailers and the clear impact these have on the public, I’d expect this to be taken into account in an public interest tests required by other exemptions.