Inspections and enforcement
How trading standards inspections work, your rights during an inspection and what happens if you’re not following the rules.
Penalties and enforcement
If you do not meet trading standards rules, you could be taken to court and fined, or go to prison in serious cases.
We follow our regulatory services enforcement policy.
Where possible, we aim to educate and advise businesses to help them follow the rules before taking legal action.
We can issue financial penalties to letting agents and landlords who break certain rules. We follow our financial penalties policy for:
Businesses can also be fined for breaking environmental laws, including the ban on selling single-use vapes from June 2025. Read our guidance on fines, notices and other civil sanctions for single-use vapes.
How to pay a penalty
If we’ve issued you a penalty, you can pay:
- online by payment card
- by bank transfer (see your penalty notice for instructions)