BSI has already indicated that it is willing to participate in the initiative. While the BSI takes on setting the standards, the new approvals body will register traders and take action against those who do not adhere to the standard. In the final event, the approvals body will be able to remove any recalcitrant traders from the register and publicise their removal. The OFT also proposes that the approvals body should run an independent redress scheme to put problems right. This could be run along the lines of an ombudsman scheme, where an independent expert acts as referee between individual consumers and a trader.
Public awareness is crucial to the success of the scheme.
The new body would have an easily identifiable 'better trader' logo so that consumers could know at a glance that they were dealing with a business qualified to a high standard. This scheme does have a harder edge, in that everybody will understand clearly that the loss of that badge will affect their trading position,' says Ian Edwards. The precise way in which the approvals body will operate is still up for discussion. Despite the radical nature of the proposals, Ian Edwards stresses that there are numerous examples of where some trade associations have demonstrated that codes can work successfully. For example, the Direct Marketing Association introduced the requirements of the EU's distance-selling directive into its code well in advance of UK legislation, which is not expected to come into force until 2000.