Consumers: Protection
(asked on 29th October 2019) - View Source
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary for State of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the cost to the public purse was of all departmental and non-departmental public body spending on (a) consumer protection, (b) product safety and (c) consumer enforcement from 2010 to 2019.
This Government is committed to ensuring consumers know and can exercise their rights and that there is an effective system to enforce them when things go wrong. Protecting public safety is a priority for this government and stringent legislation is in place which requires manufacturers to place only safe products on the market. The Office for Product Safety and Standards was set up in January 2018 to provide leadership on product safety issues.
Year £M) | Consumer [i]Advice | Consumer Advocacy[ii] | Enforcement[iii] | Product Safety |
2010-11 | 1.4 | 4.9 | 7.8 | N/A |
2011-12 | 8.5 | 3.9 | 8.7 | |
2012-13 | 15.8 | 2.7 | 4.7 | |
2013-14 | 10.8 | 3.7 | 14.8 | |
2014-15 | 10.4 | 4.2 | 14.9 | |
2015-16 | 11.0 | 4.2 | 14.7 | |
2016-17 | 10.6 | 3.7 | 14.4 | 0.67 |
2017-18 | 9.7 | 3.6 | 14.3 | 1.15 |
2018-19 | 9.5 | 3.6 | 14.2 | 8.46 |
It has not been possible within the timeframe to identify robust information on BEIS expenditure on product safety prior to 2016-17.
[i] Telephone and online advice for consumers on general consumer issues. Increase in 2012-13 includes £5m in transition costs moving the service from Consumer Direct to the Citizens Advice consumer service.
[ii] Provision of general consumer advocacy only
[iii] 2010-11 and 2011-12 represents BEIS funding for specific enforcement projects such as Scambusters, Illegal Money Lending, Ports and Borders prior to the establishment of National Trading Standards and Trading Standards Scotland in April 2012 to deliver national and cross-border enforcement.