24 Jan
2020

ABTA announces a Primary Authority partnership with Kent County Council Trading Standards

Primary Authority logo

ABTA has entered into a Primary Authority partnership with Kent County Council to enhance the benefits to ABTA Members of following the advice that ABTA provides on Trading Standards regulatory requirements. ABTA will act as a co-ordinator on behalf of its Members and advice issued under the Partnership will be confirmed as “Assured Advice” by Kent County Council Trading Standards.
 
ABTA’s Code of Conduct and Guidance on the Code of Conduct have been signed off by the Primary Authority as “assured advice”. These two documents represent ABTA’s core guidance to Members. Provided that Members follow this advice, they can be confident that they are complying with the law. A Primary Authority takes away the risk of businesses being subject to conflicting opinions from other trading standards authorities and facing unnecessary investigation. Any Trading Standards authority must notify Kent Trading Standards if they intend to take enforcement action against an ABTA Member. That action can be halted if it conflicts with Primary Authority Advice, i.e. the ABTA Code of Conduct and Guidance on the Code. 
 
Simon Bunce, ABTA Director of Legal Services said: “I’m delighted to announce our partnership with Kent County Council Trading Standards. ABTA Members should be greatly reassured that as long as they follow the advice given in the ABTA Code of Conduct and Guidance on the Code, they will be abiding by all relevant laws and should be protected from potential prosecution from their local trading standards office, if an issue arises that is specifically covered in the advice.  
 
“Having access to this Primary Authority agreement through membership of the Association is a clear new Member benefit. It will provide another excellent reason for customers to book with an ABTA Member and increase the already high levels of respect and trust the public has in the ABTA logo.”
 
There are no increased costs for this new partnership and further information on how primary authorities work can be found here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/primary-authority-a-guide-for-businesses-with-a-co-ordinated-primary-authority.

For further information, contact:
stipton@abta.co.uk or press@abta.co.uk

Out of Hours: contact the duty press officer 020 3693 0183
Web: www.abta.com
Twitter: @ABTAtravel

Notes to editors
ABTA has been a trusted travel brand for over 65 years. Our purpose is to help our Members to grow their businesses successfully and sustainably, and to help their customers travel with confidence. 
The ABTA brand stands for support, protection and expertise. This means consumers have confidence in ABTA and a strong trust in ABTA Members. These qualities are core to us as they ensure that holidaymakers remain confident in the holiday products that they buy from our Members. 

We help our Members and their customers navigate through today's changing travel landscape by raising standards in the industry; offering schemes of financial protection; providing an independent complaints resolution service should something go wrong; giving guidance on issues from sustainability to health and safety and by presenting a united voice to government to ensure the industry and the public get a fair deal.

ABTA has more than 4,300 travel brands in Membership, providing a wide range of leisure and business travel services, with a combined annual UK turnover of £39 billion. For more details about what we do, what being an ABTA Member means and how we help the British public travel with confidence visit www.abta.com.