Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government is taking to counter the practice of intentionally shortening the lifespan of consumer products through planned obsolescence.

Subject to the outcome of two public consultations, later this year, the Government plans to introduce ecodesign measures that promote the repairability of consumer products, such as household fridges, washing machines and televisions, in order to increase their lifespan. These measures aim to improve the resource efficiency of energy related products and this will include ensuring that spare parts are available for a minimum of seven years after the placing of new products on the market. They will also ensure that parts can be replaced with the use of commonly available tools, tackling premature obsolescence. We are also seeking powers through the Environment Bill that will enable government to require products to carry information for example relating to product lifetimes, durability and reparability.

Our forthcoming world class energy-related products framework will push products to use even less energy and material resources, in order to reduce carbon emissions and consumer bills, and improve resource productivity.