“Article produced by Jerry Burnie from IQS London”
The UK Government is committed to protecting consumers from unsafe products. The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has been created to be the new national regulator for product safety. As part of a review of the product safety regime in the UK OPSS are now seeking evidence.
They are looking for evidence in the following areas:
- product design, manufacture and placing on the market
- new models of supply
- new products and product lifecycles
- enforcement considerations
- a diverse and inclusive product safety framework
The result of this work may mean updates to overarching legislation such as the Consumer Protection Act. Some of this legislation is very old and could benefit from an update. However, it could result in updates to sector specific legislation such as the Toy (Safety) Regulations which could be more problematic and will result in greater diverghence from Europe.
Closing date for comments is 3rd June 2021
The next stage will be a document outlining their plans which will be issued for further comment. This step is now expected in the first part of 2022.
The Consultation can be found here
PAS 7055: 2021 Button and coin batteries – Safety Requirements – Specification
The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has sponsored the development of a Publicly Available Standard (PAS) for Button and Coin batteries. A PAS is not a British Standard and does not constitute legal advice nor is it a legal requirement. However, it is considered sensible to consider and apply the contents if appropriate.
The PAS addresses the safety issues posed by button and coin batteries. It does this by requiring warnings on the battery, battery packaging and on products that contain these batteries in addition to any testing requirements appropriate to the individual products.
Certain products are out of scope including toys due to the controls already in place within EN62115.
The PAS is free to download here