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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of recent trends in the level of local authority funding on the ability of trading standards bodies to enforce product safety measures.

Government identified the need for national leadership and co-ordination of the product safety system and established the Office for Product Safety and Standards in January 2018 to fulfil this role. The Office has built capability to lead on scientific and technical issues, including commissioning a research programme; set up arrangements to deal with national product safety incidents; and formed a trading standards co-ordination unit to support the work that Local Authorities carry out on product safety in their local areas.

We value the important role that Local Authority Trading Standards carry out in enforcing product safety measures, protecting consumers and providing advice to businesses at a local level. Local Authorities are independent from central government and are responsible for their own finances and funding decisions, accountable to their local electorates. As part of its support for Local Authority Trading Standards, OPSS has made available £500,000 per annum to Local Authorities for product safety testing, trained over 650 trading standards staff from 211 Local Authorities and provided scientific and technical support in responding to incidents to increase their capability on product safety regulation.