The S P F Blog

We, licensed trade stocktakers, have an industry body; The Institute Of Licensed Trade Stock Auditors. I have so many issues with this organisation I don’t know where to start, but in the interests of venting I will give it a go

1 – I have a major problem with the word ‘auditor’. Auditors, to my mind, are accountants with an extra qualification. It’s wrong of us to give ourselves grand titles without earning the right to.

2 – The ILTSA, according to themselves, is ( are? ) ‘the only qualifying body for stock takers within the Licensed Trade’. Now, this is true but is their qualification worth having?

For instance:

Venners, the biggest stocktaking company in the UK do not have any ILTSA recognition on their website; they are not ILTSA members. Does this mean all the stocktakers working for Venners are not fit for purpose? Hmm, how about Capcon? A national company operating to ISO 9001 Gold Award standards and part of Capcon Holdings PLC? All their stocktakers are not qualified either according to ILTSA.

Me After a 25 year plus industry career, the last 15 as a stocktaker, ILTSA will tell you I’m not qualified to do the job. In fact, their ‘qualified’ stocktakers may well telephone my clients ( again ) and point out my shortcomings.

Their ‘qualification’ is a three hour exam consisting of some 20 questions, 18 of which are compulsory. There is no compulsion to carry out any training prior to taking the exam though, you can download the form, book the exam ( sorry, pay your fee when you book the exam ) and assuming you pass you are qualified.

The training course deserves special comment. The ILTSA will take around £600 off somebody, put them through a 3 day training course, charge them another few quid ( can’t be bothered looking ) for an examination fee and, assuming they pass, give them some letters after their name to prove that they are a qualified ’stock auditor’. This, to me, seems a pretty dangerous way to introduce someone to the inner sanctum of your business but, of course, the guys that have the qualifications know best right?

I realise that my rantings could be interpreted as just another dis-gruntled moaner having a pop and that ILTSA are nothing but a bunch of splendid chaps trying to educate the ignorant and control an industry ripe for exploitation of the vulnerable and susceptible, so why not have a look at their website?

ILTSA Exam Booking Form

To reserve tour place on an ILTSA Exam, please use the link below to download and booking form and once completed, please post this back to ILTSA sending a cheque payable to “The ILTSA” with it. All rates exclude VAT @ 17.5% and a receipt will be sent once payment has cleared.

This is the best laugh I’ve had in a while. I think they may have subbed their copy writing out to an Eastern European call centre…

I’m on the phone talking to Sky about their ‘up to 20mb’ broadband speed. My stance is that their advertising is so scandalously exaggerated that it borders on deception and that they might as well offer ‘up too 100mb’

This is the speed test on my line, I’m 1000 metres from the exchange, 20mb broadband is absolute pie in the sky for most of us.

Short answer – yes.

Longer answer – Since the fire reform regulations came into force the onus has been very much on the ‘responsible person’, if that is you then regardless of whether you did the risk assessment yourself or not it is very much your affair, so your interests will be best served by being very involved even if you get a contractor in.

Sad to see the Windmill close its doors for the last time. Nothing to do with compliance matters this time, just the state of the industry and the reality that the most valuable thing about many pubs these days is the land they are sat on.

There are a few locally that are about to be built on, the Fernhill in Preesall and the Royal Oak in Poulton, now the Windmill and the Mariners has been a heap of rubble for some time, with surely more to come.

I’m not normally one to shed a tear over pub closures, the market decides what is viable and those that are not need to be something else. There is something sad about a community pub like the Windmill coming the the end of its life though, particularly to be replaced by a Tesco. Just what we need, another supermarket…

It occurred to us this week that, given that it usually costs an awful lot of money to engage a consultant, some business operators may have pre-conceived ideas about the cost of buying in risk assessment services.

The system we use is based on a piece of software that we have developed in-house. This means that the reporting system is quick and easy to use, we print reports on site and have not yet found a site that we could not do a thorough risk assessment on in a single day.

Given that the task only takes a day, we offer the service at £250 plus the dreaded VAT. This is for a licensing risk assessment, a health and safety risk assessment or a fire risk assessment.

We also have the ability to produce a health and safety policy and COSHH assessments on site plus a large selection of notices and signs as may be needed.

There are no hidden costs, we don’t try to stick you for extras. If you want to save some money and do your own risk assessments we can supply a pack with templates in for £75.

In either case, whether we do the job for you or you buy a pack and do the risk assessment yourself, there is a forum within the website with good information already posted and where you can find some help and support.