Government Response to the Product Safety Review Consultation

DBT have published a response to the 2023 PSR consultation.

As reported in this news item, in 2023 the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) published a consultation seeking views on how the UK can better regulate in the area of product safety, taking into account consumers, businesses and local authorities. 

CTPA worked with committees and the CTPA Board to create an industry contribution and responded to the Product Safety Review (PSR) consultation.  CTPA’s response can be accessed in the CTPA Consultation Responses.  DBT received over 126 responses to the consultation and undertook 53 stakeholder events to discuss the review.

On 5 November 2024, an official summary of the consultation responses was published and constitutes the Government response to the consultation.  The main themes identified were:

• The need to develop a regime that can respond more readily to emerging hazards and products, with temporary derogations to support supply of essential products during emergencies.
• Support for stronger and clearer responsibilities for online marketplaces to proactively prevent and remove unsafe product listings.
• Introduction of voluntary digital labelling.
• Support of an enhanced leadership and coordination role for OPSS as the national regulator to increase collaboration with various actors in the product safety system and reinforce better ways of working with market surveillance authorities.
• Establishing a legal data gateway that integrates existing systems and allows sharing of intelligence between market surveillance authorities, to aid compliance and enforcement.
• Support for stronger powers to deal with problem products, consolidating enforcement legislation and providing market surveillance authorities with a single set of notices and offences to improve and simplify the enforcement system.

Overall, the consultation found that the current product safety and metrology frameworks are well established, however updates are needed to keep pace with modern challenges and technological development.

The response can be accessed here.

As reported in this news item, the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill has been introduced into the House of Lords, to provide DBT with enabling powers to implement the policy proposals emanating from the PSR.

CTPA will be monitoring the progress of the Bill and will be seeking reassurances from the UK Government that future legislation does not undermine the UK Cosmetics Regulation.