Consumer Products (Control of Biocides) Bill [HL]

Baroness Freeman of Steventon Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 17th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Freeman of Steventon (CB)]

My Lords, it is a long time since the only good microbe was considered to be a dead microbe, but, even as I sat here in my office in Parliament, I noticed that we have been issued with an antimicrobial spray that claims that it kills 99.9% of bacteria. I will come back to that spray in a bit.

Our understanding of the microbial world has changed enormously in recent decades, and it is bound to continue to do so. Many people are now aware of the complexities and the importance of our gut microbiome. Far fewer know about our skin microbiome or the vaginal microbiome, yet researchers are uncovering their importance as well. As the noble Baroness, Lady Sugg, just mentioned, research evidence that douching and other practices that affect the vaginal microbiome can increase the risks of infections and potentially affect fertility is coming to light. Our microbiomes are delicate systems, intricately linked with our health. The idea, then, that any product such as wipes, sprays, clothes or, worst of all, sanitary products containing chemicals explicitly to kill microbes should be marketed to consumers at all, let alone without clear labelling of what they contain and what those substances are doing, seems extraordinary to me.

In fact, it seems so extraordinary that I looked at the Health and Safety Executive’s guidance on biocidal products authorisation. I took the spray from my parliamentary office and looked at the ingredients. It has a proud union flag on it and comes from a British manufacturer. It lists the active ingredient, which I checked against the HSE spreadsheet of biocidal chemicals. It was categorised as not approved for any use in the UK. This was literally the first product I checked and, once I started looking, I found that it was far from an isolated case. Many similar antimicrobial sprays and wipes for sale on our high street seem to contain substances on that not approved list. Maybe this is a problem of enforcement, but, as a confused consumer, I continued to investigate. Next, I looked at treated articles, such as odour-reducing socks. The first pair I found advertised claimed to contain real silver fibres. I checked, and silver is labelled as not authorised on the HSE’s biocidal regulation spreadsheet, and apparently cannot be used to treat products.

I asked whether I might be misunderstanding the regulations. It seems not entirely clear whether treated articles come under HSE biocides regulation or under the General Product Safety Regulations, but I would have thought that if the HSE did not authorise the use of the active chemicals then they should not be used in any consumer products. Perhaps this is, again, just a failure of enforcement, but maybe it is a lack of clarity in existing regulations.

Some silver compounds in that long spreadsheet list are still under review by the HSE, so perhaps that is what the socks contained. That led me to find out what effects are considered when a substance is reviewed under these regulations. There is a lot of paperwork, but I cannot see anything showing that the effects on the microbiome or the consequences of those effects are considered, presumably because the microbiome has not been a recognised part of our biology for long enough to make it into legislation. Of course, the HSE is not responsible for assessing environmental effects. Overall, this seems to indicate that the current regulations are inconsistent, out of date and possibly poorly enforced.

My impression as a consumer is that this is an area that needs looking into. Products appear to be on sale in Britain that raise concerns about their effects on individuals and the environment, and there are likely effects on our microbiomes and on the environment that it seems are not even being assessed. I ask the Minister to consider the whole matter of consumer antimicrobial products and what can be done to ensure that they are well regulated. Meanwhile, I am certainly not going to be using that spray in my office.