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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps she is taking to remove toys that have been proven to be capable of causing serious injury or death to children from being sold to consumers via online marketplaces.

I consider the issue of online sales to be a priority and recently wrote to major online platforms calling on them to take measures to ensure that dangerous products are not available through online platforms and ask what proactive measures they are taking to this end.

UK legislation provides that manufacturers of toys must ensure that they comply with the essential safety requirements before the toy is placed on the market. Products which pose a serious risk to consumers are notified through the EU Rapid Alert System for dangerous non-food products (or ‘RAPEX system’). All relevant enforcement authorities have powers to take measures against products which do not meet the legal requirements. This can include, where appropriate, withdrawing the product from the market or issuing a recall. The UK has also developed its own product safety database which will be rolled out to all Local Authority Trading Standards services from September. This will give the UK national capability to collate information on unsafe and non-compliant products enabling us to identify new threats and to mount coordinated and rapid responses.

OPSS is undertaking a number of projects aimed at ensuring products sold online, including through marketplaces, meet essential safety and compliance requirements. Given the complex challenges posed by online sales through a variety of business models, OPSS is undertaking a project reviewing the product safety legal framework to ensure that UK consumers remain protected from products sold via online marketplaces.