What is Buy With Confidence?
Buy With Confidence is a trader approval scheme that is run directly by Trading Standards. Where many other schemes are commercial, Buy With Confidence is not for profit – membership and application fees are done on a cost recovery basis and any money made is invested directly back into the scheme. In order to become a Buy With Confidence member, a business must pass an audit by a Trading Standards qualified person. Buy With Confidence is dedicated to elevating businesses with a commitment to trading fairly, as well as protecting consumers from rogue traders. As a business, there are a number of benefits to the scheme, including direct access to Trading Standards for advice and meditation.
How is TSSW Involved?
TSSW is a partner in the scheme, alongside Devon, Somerset & Torbay Trading Standards and Hampshire Trading Standards. Buy With Confidence is well-recognised across the South West, and all of the Local Authorities in the TSSW area support Buy With Confidence. As a partner in the scheme, we are dedicated to supporting Buy With Confidence and to continue growing the scheme across the country. Buy With Confidence also has a subscription to our age restricted sales toolkit, No Proof of Age – No Sale. This means that if you’re a business that sells age restricted products and you have a Buy With Confidence membership, you may be able to get access to the toolkit subsidised by Buy With Confidence.
Current Projects
Buy With Confidence are extremely proud of our partnership with the Devon & Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner to achieve our shared goal of reducing Modern Slavery. We aim to do this by educating our staff and members on how to identify and report potential victims of Modern Day Slavery. So far we have held a formal training day for our Buy With Confidence auditors, which featured talks from Unseen UK and the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit. We will build on this by providing further training materials for both our auditors and members, including the production of a training video. Finally, we will ensure that, as part of our Buy With Confidence audit process, all member businesses are assessed to ensure they are taking appropriate steps to eliminate all Modern Day Slavery Practices. We believe this project to be of great worth and one which both Buy With Confidence and Devon & Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner hope will be transferable to other regions.
Find out More
To find out more about the scheme, you can visit the Buy With Confidence website directly, where you can find out more information. You can also get in contact with the scheme by e-mailing admin@buywithconfidence.gov.uk.
Important: If you need consumer advice, click here or call the Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline on 03454 04 05 06.