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There are many prestigious addresses in the City of Westminster such as Regent Street, Piccadilly and Berkeley Square. Operating from these places are businesses commonly known as 'accommodation addresses' who provide a trading address to clients who often have no physical presence there. A clients mail is forwarded onto another address or held for personal collection. These businesses may also offer personalised telephone/ fax answering services, internet facilities and hire conference rooms to create a 'virtual office'. Some accommodation addresses maybe recognisable by the mailboxes outside their premises but on paper these are not obvious.
Historically under the Official Secrets Act 1920 ‘accommodation address businesses’ were required to register with the police and keep records of their clients, however this Act was repealed in 2000. In 2002 Westminster Trading Standards introduced a code of practice, the M.A.I.L Fair Trade Scheme, designed to encourage co-operation by accommodation address businesses with law enforcement officers and the keeping of copies of identification of clients. However, many businesses failed to adopt the good practices of the scheme, putting members at a disadvantage and hindering criminal investigations.
The London Local Authorities Act 2007 section 75, was introduced by Westminster Trading Standards in part, in an attempt to deal with persons involved in criminal activities who use the services of an accommodation address to take advantage of the confidentiality assured and lack of record keeping by some, in order to hide their identity and avoid detection by enforcement agencies such as Trading Standards and the police. Westminster has the highest concentration of accommodation addresses in the country.
Section 75 of the London Local Authorities Act 2007 came into force in the City of Westminster on the 7th January 2008, it requires accommodation address businesses to register with the Council, keep records of all clients who use their services and instructions for the delivery/ forwarding of clients’ mail. Copies of two pieces of a client’s identification must be retained as well as their full contact details.
The maximum penalty for failing to register with the Council, keep records as required or make false entries is a fine of £5,000.
(The legislation applies London wide however, it is adoptive which means that a local council can choose whether or not to implement the requirements in their area).
Guidance notes on the requirements of the new legislation have been produced by Westminster Trading Standards and can be viewed by clicking here.
Note that to view the above document you may need to have installed the free Adobe Acrobat PDF reader. This can be obtained from the Adobe website.
If you are offering mail forwarding/ or holding facilities within the City of Westminster you must register with the Council. Please click here
to download an application form.Note that to view the above document you may need to have installed the free Adobe Acrobat PDF reader. This can be obtained from the Adobe website.
This form should be completed and returned as soon as possible along with the one off registration fee of £57. The fee is payable by cheque made payable to the ‘City of Westminster’. A certificate will be despatched on receipt of the application.
Please send the application form and remittance to:
Trading Standards
5th Floor, City Hall
Victoria Street
London SW1E 6QP
We hope the new legislation will ensure a more fair, honest and competitive trading environment for all within the City of Westminster.
Should you have any questions please contact:
Bethan Featherby on 020 7641 2589 bfeatherby@westminster.gov.uk
or
Vivien Levy on 020 7641 2506 vlevy@westminster.gov.uk
Click here to view our first presentation to an accommodation address business under the new legislation.