CTSI Conference 2016 - Plenary 3 In this feature changing behaviour health scams and fraud CONFERENCE 2016 Horizon scanning Public health and wellbeing, climate change and scams were among the topics discussed in this wide-ranging third plenary at CTSI Conference in Telford. Carina Bailey reports T Plenary facilitator Victoria Macdonald he only sure-re way to change the behaviour of big business is to impact on top-line sales, according to entrepreneur and Panel members business adviser Adam Pritchard. Facilitator: During the third and nal plenary of CTSI Conference, Victoria Macdonald, Pritchard argued that the answer to securing change in broadcast journalist consumer and business behaviour was not extending the nanny state, Panel: but empowering and informing consumers and giving them a choice. Dr Stephen Morton Whatever happens, people are going to carry on drinking Coca-Cola, programme director, for example and theyre going to continue to eat meat. Its just that Public Health England if you start to have an impact on a businesss top-line sales, which is Mark McGinty team a slow decrease in percentage points per annum, this starts to shift leader, Highland Council corporate strategy and thats very different from a nanny state Alasdair MacFarlane enforcing something. head of customer security, He added: If you look at where the tobacco industry was 20 years RBS/Natwest ago, and what you see on the back of a packet of cigarettes today, Adam Pritchard entrepreneur its remarkable, and it has changed smoking habits in this country. and business adviser Pritchard told delegates that the food and drinks market is probably changing more now than perhaps at any other time in the past 50 years. He attributed some of this to discount players, such as Aldi and Lidl, entering the market, and to the introduction of the sugar tax. Up to now, he said, the market has been driven by a desire for cheap processed food and drink. Sugar has been used across every part of the industry to create taste, volume and to keep costs low. The impact of the use of sugar is now borne out with the exponential growth of type II diabetes. Obesity and type II diabetes are inextricably linked. Should government and trading standards be doing something about this issue? Most denitely. The food industry makes a lot of money by using ingredients that arent necessarily in the interests of public health. Its for the government to take a stance that blows open the door for consumers to really understand what is RBS/Natwests going into certain food and drinks, which have traded on health platforms Alasdair that just arent healthy and have made a lot of money in the process. MacFarlane said Pritchard added: Neither business nor government can bury its head banks cannot tackle in the sand on such a long investment threat to UK public health. Its scams on their own understood that all public departments have faced and are facing ongoing cuts to their budgets. The government needs to think differently, with the introduction of the sugar tax being in my opinion an important rst step. Only one statistic changes corporate strategy: decreasing sales. As soon as the sales line starts to point down, companies act fast. He suggested that some of the money raised from a sugar tax could be used to re-educate people about how to make a positive choice. However, he warned that the sugar tax wont directly hit businesses. The sugar tax will be passed on to consumers; it will not affect the major drinks companies unless you hit their sales results. Public health Mark McGinty made the case for improving datasharing between agencies While Dr Stephen Morton programme director, Public Health England didnt want to dwell on the introduction of a sugar tax, he agreed that major strides had been made on tobacco use: We have made remarkable progress on tobacco control. Telling people of the risks of smoking has a very modest effect on whether they give up, he explained, but this improves with the use of support groups and nicotine-replacement methods. As tax on cigarettes goes up, purchases go down, he said, while compulsory smoking bans in public places and legislation on plain packaging have also helped. In contrast, we have done very little at all with alcohol and drug use, said Morton. Alcohol has become steadily more affordable; its become more available, and weve struggled to get consistent messages across and the one big hope of getting a minimum unit price for alcohol appears to have fallen by the wayside. It is not enough simply to rely on the NHS and traditional health services to tackle public health, though. While it is hard to dene, Morton said services are given an idea about how to approach public health by its current denition, which is: The science and art of promoting and protecting health, preventing ill health and prolonging life by the organised efforts of society. Its obviously more than just giving advice to individuals, he added and it isnt necessarily about government action either, locally or nationally. According to Morton, climate change is potentially the best public health opportunity of the 21st century. During Conference, the media was abuzz with reports that Euro 5 diesel engines are more polluting when it is colder than 18C outside which Morton referred to as most of the time in the UK. The revelation is another example of consumers receiving a rough deal from car manufacturers and the uphill obstacles Britain faces when trying to improve the publics health. Mitigating climate change is going to require people and governments to do many things differently, including: cycling and walking instead of travelling by car; changing diets to include more fruit and vegetables, less meat and less processed food; maintaining and developing green space; and having a responsible approach to energy. Instigating change on this level is a challenge, with coordinated action from all levels of society required to achieve results. We need social movements, and that takes time, consistency and hard work, said Morton. We can expect opposition, and we can expect dirty tricks [from the food and drinks industries]. We dont want to give up on this; the potential benets are very large for us, and especially for our children. Forging relationships Turning to the bread-and-butter issues for trading standards, Mark McGinty, team leader, Highland Council, stressed the importance of collaboration with partners. We are not a silo if you think were a silo, Iwould suggest youve got it wrong. If your partner thinks youre a silo, you have to be prepared for a conversation whereby you say, I appreciate that, but this is what we need you to do. McGinty said data sharing with other authorities was also an important issue. One way to navigate this, he suggested, was to create an informationsharing agreement, signed by a local authority and its key partners, such as the local NHS provider and police service. He stressed that the need to share details about doorstep crime and scams should be specically written into it. When scams are perpetrated, it can have enormous effects on the mental health and independence of the individuals targeted. Morton explained that a lot of vulnerable people rely on social support networks to maintain their independence and live in a community, but scam activity destroys these networks. I think thats a much bigger effect and probably harder to quantify, he said. Alasdair MacFarlane, head of customer security at RBS/Natwest, told delegates that the bank has been looking at how it can both communicate with, and educate its customers to spot scams. It requires more than letters and information online for our customers to modify some behaviours effectively, he said. Weve found it really important to nd different ways of getting messages to customers in their own home, at their own time and at their own convenience. RBS has recently created the role of community protection advisers, which have been rolled out across Scotland. Its their job to forge relationships with trading standards and other third-party agencies, such as the police. We cant do it alone, said MacFarlane. Fraud and nancial crime is highly organised and its very sophisticated its not really opportunistic now. Its organised crime and its international, so the response of the bank has to be of a similar scale and have the ambition to make a difference. Climate change is a good public heath opportunity, according to Dr Stephen Morton Suckers lists Big business will only alter its behaviour if its top-line sales are affected, warned Adam Pritchard Fraud can be devastating for small businesses, too, and can put people out of work. So now the bank spends a lot of time communicating with companies, making them aware of scams and what they can do to protect themselves. More and more businesses are moving online, so we provide free security software, explained MacFarlane. Customers who have downloaded that software have never been a victim of fraud. Weve got to push it all the time and educate customers to take measures to protect themselves. But not all banks are as forthcoming as RBS/Natwest. McGinty recounted the time he ended up driving 35 miles to a bank he was trying to contact because he couldnt get the branchs telephone number. Eventually, his team met with the regional managers group. Banks have a role in this, whether they like it or not, he said. Some banks are much better than others. Some have taken it to the fullest degree; sometimes you have to force the issue. Towards the end of the session, a delegate made a plea to everyone in the room to lobby for suckers lists to be shared: We could put ags on customers accounts to enable us to be more alert to it, but at the moment the rules are preventing the National Trading Standards Scams team from sharing that information with us. If everyone in this room could get behind sharing that data, it would take us a massive step forward in terms of collaboration. Credits Carina Bailey is editor of TS Today. Images: Sam Atkins To share this page, click on in the toolbar You might also like Conference coverage 2015