rob byron / SHuTTErSToCk News Burning issue of faulty white goods lancashire County to run out of money in April 2019 A recent report has warned that Lancashire County Councils financial reserves will be gone by April 2019, and that the local authority will have a deficit of almost 400m by 2021. PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) carried out the independent review, which confirms that the councils long-term financial position is not sustainable, even if it makes significant further savings. The council says it cannot continue to make cuts and provide the statutory services including trading standards that it is required to deliver by law. It is using the report to lobby central government about funding for local councils. A spokesperson for Lancashire County Council said: The PwC report provides independent confirmation that the government needs to rethink how it supports councils if it wants to protect services for the most vulnerable. The government has announced a new working group to improve the safety of all domestic white goods, after a series of fires caused by faulty tumble dryers. The product recalls and safety working group will bring together expertise from the fire service, trading standards, consumer organisations and industry, and report back with its interim findings bythe end of the year. Its areas of focus will be: causes of fires in white goods; marking of appliances to make them easier to identify after a fire; andacode of practice for product recalls, including a peer review of risk assessments. An ongoing review into local authorities will also prioritise the issue of product safety, in the wake of an investigation by fire chiefs into a serious fire in London earlier this year. It confirmed that the blaze was caused by a tumble dryer with a fault previously identified by the manufacturer, Whirlpool. Last year, Whirlpool admitted that the fire fault caused when excess fluff touches the heating element occurs in some models, but has not issued a product recall, insisting that people can continue to use the affected dryers while they are waiting for them to be repaired or replaced, as long as they do not leave them unattended. Fire chiefs have renewed their calls for Whirlpool to change its advice to consumers and warned of the dangers of not having a robust national system of product recalls in emergency situations. The government has now written to the company to ask it to do moreto reassure its customers, including looking at reducing the waiting time for machine modifications. Consumer minister Margot James said: I want to see what more can be done to improve the safety of white goods and to support local trading standards officers to make sure customers arent put at risk. In a statement, Whirlpool said: We are working hard to improve our response times. We continue to cooperate fully with the relevant regulatory authorities as progress of the campaign is regularly monitored and reviewed. Across London, 2,072 fires involving white goods have been recorded since January 2011. The London Fire Brigade (LFB) estimates that more than 118m has been lost from Londons economy as a result. The LFB has now launched new campaign, Total Recalls, aimed at protecting the public from faulty appliances. Among the key recommendations is the introduction of a single register listing products from the UK and abroad that have been recalled. mps press for a national product-recall register The motion was tabled by Labour MP Andy Slaughter, after confirmation in an independent report by the London Fire Brigade that a faulty Indesit tumble dryer manufactured by Whirlpool was the cause of a blaze in his Shepherds Bush constituency. More than 100 families had to be evacuated when the fire broke out in an 18-storey tower block in August. The family that owned the tumble dryer had been following Whirlpools advice not to leave it unattended when it was on. Despite their swift action when the fire started, the blaze caused extensive damage, and nine families are still unable to return to their homes. luCy ClArk / SHuTTErSToCk A parliamentary motion expressing deep concern about the potential fire risk of white goods is asking the government to introduce a single register for UK product recalls that the public can access online. It also wants manufacturers to make publicly available the risk assessments they undertake once a fault is found on a product. Postal scam mafia manipulate system, newspaper investigation finds Royal Mail has been accused of failing to crack down on massmarketing scam letters that target elderly and vulnerable people including those living with dementia who are thought to lose up to5.8bn a year. Campaigners and the government have called for immediate action totackle the problem of scam mailings, after a major inquiry by a national newspaper. Louise Baxter, from the National Trading Standards Scams Team, saidthe investigation showed how criminal scammers around the world manipulated the postal system. An undercover reporter from the Daily Mail found that the letters are sent by an international network of conmen, who call themselves amafia and admit that they deliberately rip off people. The letters arethen brought to the UK and put into the Royal Mail delivery system by large postal firms such as Asendia and Whistl. Under Royal Mail bulk-mail contracts, the letters are branded with the Royal Mail insignia on their envelopes, lulling victims into a false sense of trust. Once a victim responds, their details are shared among the scammers and victims are more likely to be targeted again. The NTS Scams Team has been working with Royal Mail since 2014 to tackle the huge issue of scam mail, and their initiative has prevented around 22 million items of fraudulent mail from reaching UKhouseholds, saving consumers an estimated 99m. In a statement, it said: The work of the National Trading Standards Scams Team has seen enforcement action taken against companies based abroad, symbolising a major step-change in the way mass-marketing fraud is being tackled by enforcement agencies. Arecent investigation conducted by National Trading Standards, inpartnership with the National Crime Agency and US authorities, sawone company declared a transnational criminal group resulting inthe companys property and interests being frozen. royal mail: in response Following a meeting with the Minister for Business, Margot James MP , Royal Mail is coordinating an industry-wide response to tackle fraudulent mail at its source. As well as our joint initiative with the National Trading Standards Scams Team, measures will include: An industry-wide code of practice, developed by Royal Mail and supported by firms including Whistl and UK Mail Engaging at a European level with other postal operators The commissioning of dedicated research by Bournemouth University into postal scams. We have put in place a dedicated reporting system for both employees and customers to identify and stop scam mail, and officers from trading standards have held tailored training sessions at Royal Mail delivery offices across the UK. This training aims to improve awareness of scam mail among thousands of postmen and women, so they can report suspect items. Explosive issue of unsafe storage A discount store has been fined 300,000 and ordered to pay 29,823 costs after Staffordshire Trading Standards officers found fireworks stored unsafely, breaching Explosives Regulations and the Health and Safety at Work Act. When trading standards officers visited JTF Wholesales Tamworth store in November 2014, they found fireworks were not kept in safe containers, deliveries had not been recorded, and the store had deliberately overstocked during the firework season. Staffordshires trading standards leader, Gill Heath, said: By breaching health and safety regulations, this store was putting members of the public and its employees at risk. It is vital that businesses selling fireworks act responsibly and adhere to all of the conditions of the licence. The seriousness of these offences has been reflected in the sentence. The trading standards team will be making every effort to keep people safe in the run-up to this years firework season. new Shadow minister for Consumer protection Gill Furniss, MP for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough, has been appointed as Labours Shadow Minister for Steel, Postal Affairs and Consumer Protection. This new post on Labours front bench was created to ensure that the government is held to account for its actions on key sectors of the economy, and to ensure the needs of consumers are fully considered in any industrial strategy. Furniss said: I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to stick up for the rights of consumers, while arguing for a bold industrial strategy to transform Britains economy and ensure no-one is left behind.