The Office for Product Safety and Standards has published a new strategy, aimed at upgrading the UK’s product safety regime as part of the government’s wider modern Industrial Strategy.
The strategy focuses on strengthening ‘the UK’s world-leading product safety regime, helping to keep consumers safe and enforce the UK’s strict safety laws’. Measures included in the strategy include:
- a new national incident management team for product safety incidents capable of coordinating large scale product recall and repair programmes
- establishing a new website to support consumers with reliable information and advice about recalled products
- increased support for local authority enforcement teams at ports, borders and points of entry to ensure the safety of goods that are entering the UK
- close working with manufacturers to ensure they are compliant with safety regulations from an earlier stage of the production process
- developing tools and guidance to assist local authorities in improving risk assessments, identifying mistakes before they happen
Within the strategy, there is a strong focus on supporting Primary Authority partnerships which help businesses to feel confident that where their processes have been approved by a local authority, they must be respected by other authorities who may have a different interpretation of rules and regulations.
ACS’ Primary Authority partnership with Buckinghamshire and Surrey Trading Standards allows us to provide retailers with Assured Advice on a range of topics affecting convenience stores, including product safety. For more information about Assured Advice, visit http://www.acs.org.uk/advice
ACS has also partnered with Bolt Learning to provide online training modules based on the content of Assured Advice. Visit http://www.boltlearning.com for more information.
The full strategy document from the Office for Product Safety and Standards, Strengthening National Capacity for Product Safety, is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/733148/safety-and-standards-product-safety-strategy.pdf
