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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what work the Office of Product Safety and Standards (a) is undertaking and (b) plans to undertake to protect consumers from unsafe and non-compliant electrical goods in Northern Ireland.

Under the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016, electrical goods must be safe before they can be placed on the market in Northern Ireland, as in the rest of the UK. The Regulations place duties on manufacturers, importers and distributors of electrical equipment to ensure that where a safety issue is identified, appropriate action is taken to withdraw, recall or otherwise bring the equipment into conformity.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) operates an incident management procedure for managing consumer product safety incidents across the UK, to deliver on its wider purpose of protecting consumers and building public confidence in the product safety system. It also makes available information on recalled electrical products through its dedicated product recall website.

OPSS has provided training for Environmental Health officers in Northern Ireland on product safety recalls, PAT testing and intelligence use and has also provided them with access to testing of products that are imported or manufactured in Northern Ireland.

OPSS will continue to work closely with District Councils and other partners to further develop capability and capacity on product safety to ensure consumers in Northern Ireland are protected from unsafe electrical products.