Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the funding the Office for Product Safety and Standards has been allocated from existing Departmental budgets; and whether it represents an increase in spending on product safety.

New funding for the Office for Product Safety and Standards has been allocated from within existing Departmental budgets to increase spending on product safety. When the Office is fully operational its budget will include an additional £12m per year for new product safety activities, as announced in the Government’s response to the Working Group on Product Recalls and Safety. The budget for the Office for its first full year of operation in 2018/19 is expected to be around £25m in total which includes around £9m additional funding for product safety.