Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the efficacy of the Plugs and Sockets Regulations 1994 in regulating online trading of electrical products.

I have not carried out any specific assessment of the efficacy of the Plugs and Sockets Regulations 1994 in regulating online trading of electrical products. However, feedback from both Trading Standards (who enforce the legislation) and UK industry indicates that the Regulations, applied in conjunction with the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994, continue to act as a practical and robust means of keeping both unsafe products, and products which do not have a safe means of connection to standard UK power sockets, off the UK market, regardless of whether these products are sold online.