Recommendation 6

The government has not yet set out a clear vision and detailed plan for the future of UK product safety regulation. As well as ensuring there are the right skills and resources in place, it is also important for government to have a clear strategy to ensure the regulatory regime is fit for purpose now and in the future. Developments in product technologies and consumers buying products online have resulted in new and changing risks to consumers. The UK’s exit from the EU also has implications for the wider regulatory framework—as well as repatriated regulatory functions previously carried out at EU level, the UK will no longer recognise the EU’s CE mark signifying compliance with standards, and there will be an expected increase in goods checking at the border. There are serious concerns over the sustainability of local Trading Standards services, the OPSS will need to contend with all of these issues while also taking on responsibility for regulating the safety of construction products. The government has consulted on a review of the product safety regime but has not yet set out its vision for how the OPSS, and wider regulatory system, will address these challenges, including whether and when the OPSS should become independent of the Department with its own statutory duties and powers. Recommendation: In their update to the Committee on the product safety review, the Department and OPSS should set out a timetable for the next UK product safety regulatory strategy. This strategy should set out clearly what type of regulatory system the UK will adopt to best combat the challenges it faces, and consider at what point the OPSS would be most effective as an independent regulator. 8 Protecting consumers from unsafe products 1 The OPSS’s regulatory operations