Advice Direct Scotland

Advice Direct Scotland (ADS) is Scotland’s largest advice agency, providing free and independent advice to the citizens of Scotland. The online identity of ADS is advice.scot. ADS is a highly accredited organisation, holding both ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 accreditations, Investors in People and Living Wage Foundation accreditation. All our services are completely free at the point of use, offering reliable, relevant and practical advice for those who need it most. We understand that people today need access to advice 24/7. Our innovative omni-channel technology enables our customers to engage with our services by phone, SMS, web chat, email, online and through social media. Our comprehensive knowledge base makes significant use of Artificial Intelligence and machine-learning to ensure the information we provide is always relevant and up to date. Advice Direct Scotland handles more than 750,000 contacts annually across our range of services and we have now dealt with over 2,000,000 separate cases. ADS delivers the national consumer advice service in partnership with the Scottish Government, Trading Standards Scotland and local Trading Standards offices. consumeradvice.scot provides all Scottish citizens with practical, relevant and completely free consumer advice and information which makes a difference. We use intelligence collated from Scottish consumers to combat illegal traders and improve the services that customers receive. This service was launched in April 2019 following the devolution of consumer advocacy and advice under the Scotland Act 2016. Since launch. We have assisted over 35,000 Scottish consumers with both everyday transactions and complex issues. Our innovative service empowers and protects the people of Scotland while supporting businesses that are efficient and fair.