Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to prevent consumers purchasing unsafe second-hand electrical goods in the UK.

There are two pieces of legislation relevant to second hand electrical goods; the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994, and the General Product Safety Regulations 2005, which implement the EU’s General Product Safety Directive. They require that equipment must only be supplied which is safe. The Regulations are enforced by Local Authority Trading Standards Services, who regularly remove unsafe second-hand electrical goods from the market through their market surveillance activities.