Chargeable business advice - terms and conditions

Upon receipt of your request for advice a named officer will be nominated as your point of contact.

Once you have submitted the request summary it will be assessed to determine if we can meet the request on this occasion and you will receive an email response confirming the outcome of that assessment at the earliest opportunity.

If your request can be met then you will be sent a link to register formally for CBA, and you will need to provide further details, including payment information. Once your application has been submitted, an officer will respond to your request. We aim to respond at the earliest opportunity. If you require an urgent response or have a specific timescale, please include that in your initial enquiry, to enable us to determine whether we can respond to it. We will try and accommodate specific requests but this will depend on the complexity of the enquiry and available resources.

You will be contacted by an officer who will give you appropriate guidance and advice on relevant Trading Standards legislation. This may include the provision of information by email, links to useful websites and discussion of some examples of your products and/or services. If you would like assured advice please discuss the benefits of a Primary Authority Partnership advice with us.

Fees In asking for business advice you or your business, agree to pay any charges for officer time incurred by Trading Standards within twenty-eight days of receiving an invoice from us for the services provided. Please note all invoices will be sent electronically and will come from an email address similar to [email protected]. Please check that your spam filters do not block this email. Our current fees are here.

Our current fees.

In the event that you do not pay Trading Standards the outstanding amount within the prescribed time then we may institute civil proceedings against you and/or your business to recover the cost. Future services under scheme will cease to be provided until the outstanding amount is settled in full.

Please be aware that HCCTSS is subject to legal duties which may require the release of information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or The Environmental Information Regulations 1992 or any other applicable legislation or codes that govern access to information and that HCCTSS may be under an obligation to provide such information on request.

Trading Standards will not keep information longer than is necessary and whilst in our possession we will safeguard your personal information according to the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998 or any equivalent legislation.

Trading Standards is empowered to enforce a variety of civil and criminal statutes. It has a duty to investigate any allegations of breaches of such legislation and the provision of advice under this scheme does not affect this duty in any way whatsoever.

The use of the services under the scheme does not entitle you or your business to use any of Hampshire County Council's logos or claim any affiliation with Hampshire County Council or Trading Standards Service.

If you or your business have any complaints or are not satisfied with the quality of the services provided under the scheme please refer to the corporate complaints procedure as to how to make a complaint to Hampshire County Council.