Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade on the potential impact of the General Product Safety Regulations 2023 on the ability of consumers in Northern Ireland to buy goods from Great Britain.

The updated General Product Safety Regulations largely formalises how businesses are already operating in the UK and the measures are therefore likely to have limited impact in practice. Where businesses need to make changes, we expect that they will be adapting anyway to be compliant with the new Regulation to continue trading with the EU.

The Department for Business and Trade’s Office for Product Safety & Standards has issued guidance on the application of the General Product Safety Regulation in Northern Ireland to support businesses.

This will be kept under review and DBT will continue to engage businesses directly to ensure the government is supporting them to trade freely across the whole of the UK. My department continues to have regular engagement with DBT on this new Regulation.