§ Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domerasked Her Majesty's Government:
What prosecutions the Department of Trade and Industry has recommended be pursued because "green" or "environmental" claims were made for a product which, in the department's view, were false or misleading. [HL4717]
81WA
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville)None. It is not a function of this department to recommend that individual cases be prosecuted or pursued under the relevant legislation. The Trade Descriptions Act 1968 and the Control of Misleading Advertisements Regulations 1988 (as amended) are enforced by local authority trading standards officers and the Director-General of Fair Trading, respectively. The 1988 regulations are also one of the pieces of legislation covered by the Stop Now Orders (EC Directive) Regulations 2001, which provide trading standards departments and a number of other regulators with powers to apply for a court order to stop the publication of a misleading advertisement, as defined in the regulations, which harms the collective interests of consumers.