London Borough of Ealing wins prestigious Touchstone Award 2017
The Touchstone Award, sponsored by the British Hallmarking Council (BHC), is a national award for trading standards in hallmarking.
Representatives from the London Borough of Ealing with their Touchstone Award. (credit: Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office)
The award, launched in 2012 to encourage education and enforcement of hallmarking and to reward the best initiative relating to hallmarking, was awarded by the British Hallmarking Council and the 4 Assay Offices for a hallmarking project which led to the successful prosecution of premises with non-compliance of hall-marking. In a well planned and executed series of inspections, Ealing carried out a range of activities in various high street premises, which revealed:
- major non-compliance of the Hallmarking Act within the jewellers inspected
- 82% of seized items not hallmarked
- 22% of items fraudulently described as 22 carat
Successful prosecutions followed with more than £11,000 in fines.
A hallmarking project is now embedded within the Ealing TS Annual Service Plan and Priorities.
The joint expertise of the Trading Standards Service and the UK Assay Offices, working together, was essential in this successful hallmarking operation.
Applications from across the UK for the Touchstone Award reflected complaint intervention, enforcement and information operations. There was also encouraging evidence of positive long term activity in hallmarking operations from all applicants.
The award was made at the prestigious CTSI/Status International Awards Dinner held at the Royal Hall in Harrogate as part of CTSI’s annual Consumer Affairs and Trading Standards Conference and Exhibition 2017.