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Products: Safety

Asked by Dr Peter PrinsleyLabourDepartment for Business and TradeTabled Answered 20 March 2025UIN 38269

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to ensure that online marketplaces are accountable for the sale of unsafe products on their platforms.

Answered by Justin Madders

UK product safety law is clear: all products must be safe. Despite this, unsafe products are too readily available to consumers online. The Government has introduced the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill to allow us to update our regulatory framework, including clarifying and modernising responsibilities of online marketplaces, building on best practice, to create an effective and proportionate framework.

Alongside this, the Office for Product Safety and Standards takes action to reduce risks from non-compliant products online, including risk-based intelligence-led test purchasing, enforcement of online marketplaces and others, consumer and business advice campaigns, and coordinated interventions at ports and borders.

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