Government's U-turn on control of green claims

After promising repeatedly since 1990 to introduce legislation to control misleading environmental claims, the Government has abandoned the idea. Instead, the Department of the Environment (DoE) is to sponsor a study of the reasons why local authorities feel inhibited under existing law in pursuing companies making false or misleading green claims. But trading standards officers are already clear that enforcement under the current law will remain difficult without legal changes to place the onus on companies making green claims to substantiate them.