Consumer rip-offs 'worth £7bn'

British consumers are being ripped off by scams and frauds to the tune of almost £7 billion a year, but official arrangements to protect them are "incoherent and fragmented", a parliamentary report has warned.

The vast majority of consumer law enforcement is carried out by local councils, but abuses are increasingly operating at a regional or national level, where the protection system is "inadequate", said the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee.