How product safety affects your business

By: Sarah Noonan, Trading Standards Officer.

Product safety laws aim to ensure consumer products are designed and manufactured to be safe.

Under the General Product Safety Regulations 2005, all consumer products must be safe for their intended use, they must be clearly labelled and traceable back to a GB manufacturer or importer. For more information, see the Product Safety page on the Business Companion website at https://www.businesscompanion.info/en/quick-guides/product-safety.

Advantages to product safety

Products should be manufactured to be safe from the start, rather than manufacturers reacting to safety issues once a product has been placed on the market. This has an obvious safety advantage for consumers, but also for businesses, which benefit from reduced returns and high consumer confidence.  

More complex products will have specific legislation to cover the risks they present, with supporting safety standards setting out in more detail appropriate tests or methods of construction. Examples of this are electrical items, toys and cosmetics, all of which have their own specific set of regulations or standards. 

Changes to the law: are you an importer or manufacturer?

Great Britain (GB) has long been a strong voice across the world promoting the manufacture and sale of safe consumer products. Many of the product safety laws and standards for consumer products that exist today have evolved, thanks to key input from GB to drive products manufactured in GB, because of the high level of safety they offer. 

However, GB businesses need to be aware of changes that have occurred in recent years to product safety law because of GB’s exit from the EU. This move has brought extra legal responsibilities for a British business selling consumer products imported from the EU. For example, a business previously classed as an importer with limited responsibilities may now be classed as a manufacturer. This change in liability brings with it enhanced duties. 

If this change in product safety law sounds like it could affect you, further advice can be sought from your local Trading Standards service. 

Free-to-access guidance

As well as Business Companion, there are other examples of free-to-access guidance available for businesses concerning product safety. The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has produced free-to-access guidance aimed at setting out the key steps a business should take towards good product safety compliance. Called PAS 7050:2022 – PAS 7050 Bringing safe products to the market. Code of practice, this can be found at https://knowledge.bsigroup.com/products/pas-7050-bringing-safe-products-to-the-market-code-of-practice 

The role of corrective actions and recalls is set out in further guidance issued by the OPSS, called PAS 7100:2022 – Product recall and other corrective actions. Code of practice, which can be found at https://knowledge.bsigroup.com/products/product-recall-and-other-corrective-actions-code-of-practice.

Another useful, free-to-access tool is the Business Companion product safety page. Here you can search for guidance either for a trading sector, such as ‘butcher’, or for a specific product, such as ‘toy’.  

Remember, understanding your legal responsibilities makes for a stronger, robust and more prepared business that is better equipped to deal with unforeseen challenges.