Product Regulation and Metrology Bill [Lords] (Second sitting)

Debate between Sarah Gibson and Adam Thompson

Committee stage
Tuesday 13th May 2025 Public Bill Committees

[Adam Thompson]

My hon. Friend speaks with great knowledge on this subject, and I completely agree with everything he says.

[Sarah Gibson]

I draw the Committee’s attention to the fact that the very complex Fire Safety Act 2021 was brought about following a serious fire caused by people who were supposed to be in charge of scrutinising product safety, but actually lied about it, presenting different products that were not part of the original product and were put together slightly differently. The reliance on experts we do not know about is quite a concern. The points made by my Opposition colleagues are extremely important: who are these experts and what scrutiny are they held to?

[Adam Thompson]

The hon. Lady makes a good point; it is very important that, in situations such as the one she describes, we maintain the utmost scrutiny. In that situation, however, it was not necessarily a failure of the standards bodies, but of the individual companies that had put forward—

[Sarah Gibson]

It is indeed the case that the standards bodies failed to check that the products they were being presented with were actually the ones on the certificates they were being asked to approve. So it was a failure of our system.

[Adam Thompson]

I appreciate that. I take the hon. Lady’s point and will continue, as I am nearly done.

The last point I wished to make was that this amendment, and many of those we have heard today, has no purpose other than to demonstrate that their proposers have broadly failed to maintain the softest grasp of what metrology is, what standard frameworks are for or even why they exist. I hope that the right hon. and hon. Members opposite will consider withdrawing their amendment; otherwise, I implore colleagues to vote against it.