Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the use of ultrasonic anti-social behaviour devices on the health and wellbeing of young people who are not engaging in anti-social behaviour.

The Government is committed to ensuring that all products placed on the market in the UK are safe and a comprehensive regulatory framework exists to ensure this is the case. Products such as ultrasonic devices, including those used to deter anti-social behaviour are regulated by the General Product Safety Regulations 2005 (GPSR), and may be covered by other product specific laws, such as the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016. GPSR require that only safe products, in their normal or reasonably foreseeable use, can be placed on the market. The laws place obligations on producers, manufacturers, importers, and distributors to ensure consumers are provided with safety information including instructions for assembly, installation, and maintenance.

Concerns and questions about the safety of any product should be directed to the manufacturer in the first instance. The manufacturer should be able to provide some reassurance or take action to address these. Consumers and members of the public may also liaise directly with the Citizens Advice consumer helpline (https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/get-more-help/if-you-need-more-help-about-a-consumer-issue/). Citizens Advice may, if appropriate, send a copy of the information to the local trading standards service on their behalf. It is the responsibility of the trading standards service which receives the details from Citizens Advice to determine whether there is evidence of an offence, and to decide what further action to take. Alternatively, Citizens Advice themselves may be able to provide advice on consumer rights.

The Department of Business and Trade can confirm that there have been no reports relating to these products on the UK product safety database, which is a system used by regulators to notify information about safety risks and actions taken.