UK product safety system ‘broken’

The UK’s product safety and recall system is not fit for purpose, and is potentially putting lives at risk, a new report says.

The report, Strengthening the consumer product safety regime, published by Which? holds a lack of joined-up national oversight and action responsible for the ‘fragmented’ system.

It highlights a number of problems created by a localised system, which has no single source of information on product recalls for consumers and uses an ineffective local solution to tackle what is a national problem.

Which? said that problems in the system are made worse by the lack of resources for local trading standards teams, which have lost over half of their full-time equivalent staff and expertise since 2009, and a dependence on manufacturers to self-check their products’ safety.

The report calls for urgent changes, including the setting up of a national body that can take control of dangerous situations as they arise, and get products out of homes quickly.

It says that a ‘single, reliable and well-publicised website’ should be created to provide authoritative information and advice when dangerous products are identified or recalls are required.

It comes after Peterborough Trading Standards failed to force Whirlpool to change its advice to consumers, despite over 700 instances of their tumble dryers setting on fire.

Peter Vicary-Smith, chief executive of Which?, said: “The product safety system simply isn’t fit for purpose, and its over-reliance on a local approach to a national problem poses grave risks to consumers. The government must now take urgent action and create a new national body that has all the tools it needs to get unsafe products out of people’s homes.”

The Local Government Association (LGA) has since responded to the report. Simon Blackburn, chair of the LGA’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board, said: “Council trading standards team play a crucial role in removing unsafe products from sale, prosecuting irresponsible sellers and helping to keep communities safe.

“Despite the significant budget cuts and resource pressures trading standards have experienced, they are still doing a key job on the frontline, and it would be unwise to think that their role could simply be picked up by a new national body.

“We mustn't forget that it is manufacturers who are wholly responsible for the safety of their products - especially when faults are entirely outside the control of the consumer – and for alerting them to any relevant safety information, including product recalls.

“With firefighters dealing with three tumble dryer fires a day and electrical products being recalled at a rate of more than one a week in the UK, consumers need all the help they can get in finding out about the safety of their electrical products quickly and easily.

"A new national database of product recalls should be supported by a major publicity campaign to help flag it up to consumers as a trusted one-stop site to check all electrical goods.

“Rather than a comprehensive overhaul, which is unnecessary, the product recall system needs realigning to best serve trading standards teams operating in local communities.

“Any change to the system should therefore consider how existing national regulatory resources, which are already working with local government, can better support trading standards team locally across the country.”