The total trading standards spend in Britain has fallen dramatically, undermining the ability of councils to undertake complex prosecutions, it has been claimed.

A Chartered Trading Standards Institute report published today found the total trading standards spend in Great Britain had fallen to just £1.99 per person, per year, with the total spend dropping from £213m to £124m.

The report also found staffing levels of trading standards teams have fallen by 53% since 2009.

Government cuts have left the budgets of some trading standards teams lower than £200,000, leaving a complex crown court prosecution beyond the reach of some local authorities.

Four out of five trading standards teams admitted cuts had affected their ability to protect consumers.

Leon Livermore, chief executive of the institute, said: ‘We have a situation where trading standards teams in local councils are tasked with holding multi-million-pound firms to account, with just a handful of staff.

‘This is in addition to their many other responsibilities in the community like catching rogue-traders, preventing disease in the food chain and providing business support to help grow the economy.'

Spending so little on market surveillance and consumer protection ‘simply does not make sense,' Mr Livermore added.

The institute has called for a government-led strategic restructure of trading standards services.