From the editor-in-chief No time to feel bitter Chris Fay Editor-in-chief chrisf@tsi.org.uk Last weekends headlines surrounding the so-called suckers lists will have been a bitter pill for many trading standards officers toswallow. The Daily Telegraph and The Sun opined that officials had sat on a database of 270,000 scam victims for two years without offering them any help. A couple of regional titles waded in, too. They were damning headlines and given that the media will regard almost everyone reading this as a trading standards official we can all take it personally. Obviously the full picture is more complex. These lists have grown to about 300,000 over the last couple of years and in that time there have been 86,556 referrals to local trading standards teams. However, a recent BBC Freedom of Information investigation revealed that only about 30,000 of those referrals had resulted in a visit. So, if only a visit constitutes trading standards help, you can see how they arrived at the headline figure. There are several reasons behind the backlog of referrals, but the main one is simply lack of capacity within trading standards. Commentators are sympathetic. Paul Lewis from BBC Radio 4s Money Box said trading standards was being starved of resources and it was laughable to think officers could visit 300,000 people. Meanwhile, Sir Steve Webb, a former pensions minister, called on the government to lead and said the issue cannot be left to the worst-funded part of the public sector. The lists are growing at a far greater rate than trading standards can process them and the figures are only going to get worse. Journalists will always use broad brushstrokes and its easy to get defensive. But we must have an honest and open conversation about capacity and only expect to see a precis in the press. Thanks for reading, Chris