Consumer Protection

Yvonne Fovargue Excerpts

Tuesday 11th June 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Kelly Tolhurst)]

I beg to move,

That the draft Consumer Rights Act 2015 (Enforcement) (Amendment) Order 2019, which was laid before this House on 13 May, be approved.

Ensuring the safety of UK consumers is a key priority for the Government. It is vital that consumers can trust that the products they buy are safe. Responsible and law-abiding businesses also need to be confident that businesses which ignore their responsibilities will be held to account for breaches of product safety.

The UK enjoys a robust legal framework to protect consumers, and the Government are committed to maintaining and building on that. Indeed, we have taken decisive action to enhance the effective functioning of the product safety system. We launched the Office for Product Safety and Standards last year to enhance the UK’s product safety system and to provide strategic leadership and co-ordination of the system, taking a lead in response to national product safety incidents. The OPSS works closely with local trading standards teams to support them in tackling local issues.

[Yvonne Fovargue (Makerfield) (Lab)]

Does not the Minister agree that the cuts to local trading standards departments, which have seen them lose about 56% of their staff, have severely hampered their work in keeping the public safe?

[Kelly Tolhurst]

The hon. Lady is right about the role of trading standards and the pressures under which departments operate. The local priorities of local trading standards will always differ across the country. The beauty of the OPSS is that it takes a strategic role, which enables it to support local and national trading standards in dealing with nationwide issues. It also provides expertise and financial support for testing functions, when required.

We launched the OPSS last year to enhance the system. We work closely with local trading standards departments to support them in their work and in tackling local issues. The aim of this order is to strengthen the ability of the OPSS to carry out its role in leading the response to national product safety incidents and cases and in ensuring the cohesion of the product safety system.

The order does three things. First, it will enable the Secretary of State, and the OPSS on his behalf, to investigate potential safety issues related to consumer products regulated by the provisions of the General Product Safety Regulations 2005, using the investigatory powers listed in schedule 5 to the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Secondly, the order will enable enforcement authorities in the UK, including local trading standards, district councils in Northern Ireland and the Secretary of State, to use those same investigatory powers to investigate claims about gas appliances and personal protective equipment. Finally, the order makes a minor amendment to the Measuring Instruments Regulations 2016 and to the related reference in paragraph 10 of schedule 5 to the 2015 Act to correct a typographical error.

Potential safety issues relating to consumer products covered solely by the General Product Safety Regulations can already be investigated by enforcement authorities using the powers under schedule 5 to the 2015 Act. Such issues are generally investigated by local trading standards in the UK and by district councils in Northern Ireland in the local area where the incident has occurred. The order will enable the Office for Product Safety and Standards, on behalf of the Secretary of State, to investigate claims of unsafe products in the context of national incidents or cases, providing equivalent investigatory powers to those available to local trading standards and other relevant enforcement authorities. This means that the OPSS can provide the leadership and action needed to deal with national incidents and cases.

The order will provide the full range of powers contained in schedule 5 to the 2015 Act, which includes powers to require the production and potential seizure of documents, the inspection and purchase of products, the testing of equipment and the seizure and retention of goods. These are essential aspects of undertaking effective checks and actions in relation to unsafe goods. It is vital that our new national regulator has these powers across the broad spectrum of consumer products, which will enable it to provide leadership on cases and incidents of national importance.

The Secretary of State, and the Office for Product Safety and Standards on his behalf, may already exercise these powers in relation to the enforcement of sector-specific regulations such as on electrical equipment, lifts and so on. The Government want to ensure that the Secretary of State can lead across the wide range of consumer products, not just those that fall under sector-specific regulations. The order therefore allows the Secretary of State to investigate any type of product covered solely by the General Product Safety Regulations, should the need arise.

The order’s second purpose is to make sure that the Secretary of State, local trading standards in Great Britain and district councils in Northern Ireland can investigate safety issues concerning gas appliances and personal protective equipment. New regulations were introduced last year under the negative procedure, and this order now provides for the amendment of the 2015 Act by the affirmative procedure. It also enables enforcement authorities to use the investigatory powers in schedule 5 to the 2015 Act in relation to products covered by the 2018 regulations.

Finally, the intention underpinning the enforcement of the Measuring Instruments Regulations has always been that the enforcement authorities should have access to the investigatory powers in schedule 5 to the 2015 Act. This order corrects a typographical error in the relevant provision in both the regulations and schedule 5.

The order will provide the ability for the OPSS to lead and co-ordinate responses to national product safety cases and incidents, enhancing protection for UK consumers. It improves the Secretary of State’s ability to investigate claims of unsafe consumer products, and it helps to prevent injury and loss of life.

--- Later in debate ---

[Kelly Tolhurst]

I welcome the contributions from all Members, because we all care about consumer safety and it definitely lies at the heart of what I have been doing in my time at the Department. I wish to comment on some of the points made and answer some of the questions that were posed.

First, I respect the hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Gill Furniss) and her thoughts on Whirlpool, but I did inform the House in oral questions this morning—I do not know whether she heard—that the Government have notified Whirlpool of their intention to issue a recall notice, which is part of the regulatory process. Although I have much respect for the hon. Lady, I totally disagree with her characterisation of the Government’s view on taking forward the concerns relating to Whirlpool and of the Office for Product Safety and Standards’s role in that process.

[Yvonne Fovargue]

There are still millions of people who have not contacted Whirlpool and about whom Whirlpool knows nothing, so does the Minister not agree that the recall process would have been so much easier had there been at the time of sale a central register that could be used only in the event of a recall of dangerous white goods?

[Kelly Tolhurst]

The hon lady raises an important point. The process we have followed has meant that the Office for Product Safety and Standards carried out a review. We obviously want to move on to the next stage, and this is a great example of what the Office for Product Safety and Standards is able to do. The statutory instrument describes a specific element of that, mainly relating to the investigatory powers. We are doing further work on consumer protection as we bring together—we hope, in the near future—a consumer White Paper on strengthening enforcement and a host of other things, on the back of the Green Paper that was announced last year.

On the Secretary of State’s powers to investigate, local trading standards in Great Britain and district councils investigate claims about potentially unsafe products in their local areas. National incidents are designated under the Office for Product Safety and Standards’s national incident management plan triage process. We want the OPSS to lead on national incidents and to have the same investigatory powers as local trading standards. The Secretary of State already has equivalent investigatory powers to investigate any products regulated under specific legislation, such as cosmetics and electrical equipment, but not cots and DIY tools. This order aligns the Secretary of State’s powers with those that are already available to trading standards and ensures the consistency of the powers that could be used by the OPSS. The circumstances under which the Secretary of State would exercise those powers is where the OPSS’s national incident management plan triage process concludes that the nature of the product warrants such action.

With regard to the OPSS and its communication with our trading standards, I have to tell the House that the relationship between national trading standards, local trading standards and the OPSS is one of continuous communication and working together. We would not be able to influence and to have such a great enforcement system without those organisations working together. Yesterday, I met trading standards professionals across the enforcement landscape. A key part of my role has been making sure that I keep in touch with representatives of national and local trading standards. I wish to put it on record that trading standards officers do invaluable and exceptional work throughout the country. They work incredibly hard and are very much the unsung heroes.