Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department is taking to ensure market compliance with EU Regulation 1007/2011 on textile labelling in regard to (a) the new requirement for textile products containing non-textile parts of animal origin to be clearly labelled as such and (b) other provisions in the regulation.

It is important that consumers have accurate information to enable them to make informed choices when they are buying textile products that contain non-textile parts of animal origin.

The 2012 regulations on textile labelling replaced three separate Directives and simplified and improved a complex framework which was difficult to enforce and confusing for business. Responsibility for enforcement lies with local authority trading standards officers in Great Britain and the Department of Enterprise and Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland. Any evidence of possible offences should be brought to their attention.