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Consumer Goods: Safety

Asked by Sorcha EastwoodAllianceNorthern Ireland OfficeTabled Answered 11 December 2024UIN 18259

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment he has made of the impact of the General Product Safety Regulations on the ability of consumers in Northern Ireland to buy goods from Great Britain.

Answered by Hilary Benn

The updated General Product Safety Regulations largely formalises how businesses are already operating in the UK and the measures are therefore likely to have limited impact in practice. Where businesses need to make changes, we expect that they will be adapting anyway to be compliant with the new Regulation to continue trading with the EU.

The Business department has issued guidance in this area (General product safety regulations: Northern Ireland - GOV.UK), and we will keep this under review. The government will continue to engage businesses directly to ensure we are supporting them to trade freely across the whole of the UK.

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