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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make it his policy to require button batteries to be coated with a bitter agent to discourage children from putting them in their mouths and swallowing those batteries.

The UK has a comprehensive consumer safety and protection regulatory framework that covers button batteries, with obligations on producers, manufacturers, importers and distributors to ensure their products are safe before they are placed on the market.

The safety of button batteries is regulated by the General Product Safety Regulations 2005 (GPSR) and there are specific requirements on button batteries used in toys under the Toys (Safety) Regulations 2011.

The Government commissioned the British Standards Institution (BSI) to publish a Publicly Available Specification (PAS) standard on the safe use of button batteries. Developed with technical experts drawn from a wide range of stakeholders including consumers and businesses, it was published on 30 April this year and specifies safety requirements for button and coin batteries to mitigate the risk of ingestion.

We will continue to work with stakeholders and other interested parties to assess how technologies such as bittering agents and any other options available can be used to enhance safety.