Guidance

What you can expect of OPSS: Information for those we regulate

Updated 6 January 2022

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) is part of the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). Our mission is to be a trusted product regulator for the United Kingdom (UK); protecting people and places; enabling business to thrive; and empowering consumers to make good choices.

This document explains what those we regulate (hereafter referred to as “businesses”) can expect from OPSS when delivering its enforcement roles. We are committed, as a regulator, to providing an efficient, courteous and helpful service and this document explains how we aim to do that and what standards we will meet.

Further information on what businesses can expect from us in terms of our regulatory approach is available, including our enforcement policy, which sets out the approach we take to dealing with non-compliance and product safety issues:

Read guidance for businesses we regulate

Further information on OPSS’ role in co-ordinating and administering the designation process for standards is also available:

Read information on designated standards

Areas we regulate

OPSS exercises the powers of the Secretary of State across the UK in relation to a range of regulations:

1. We are the national regulator for product safety see footnote 1, providing scientific and technical capability, enforcing in relation to cases that are nationally significant, novel or contentious, and working with local authorities, other market surveillance authorities and border control authorities to keep consumers safe and ensure business compliance.
2. We are the national regulator for legal metrology, ensuring weighing and measuring instruments are accurate and reliable, and guiding the work of local authorities to give confidence to consumers and businesses in goods traded by quantity.
3. We enforce in relation to a range of goods-based and standards-based regulations see footnote 2. These include certain energy efficiency and environmental pollution requirements in product design and performance; standards and measurement in the energy supply infrastructure; and due diligence in the trade and use of designated raw materials – protecting consumers and the environment and helping to meet international commitments to protect biodiversity and reduce illegal deforestation.

Read our information on each regulatory area

OPSS helps local authorities respond to consumer product safety incidents, providing specialist support and advice and, in cases where incidents are judged to be nationally significant, coordinating and managing the incident response. Further information for local authorities and businesses is available in our Incident Management Plan:

Read our Incident Management Plan

OPSS also has a role in supporting the Secretary of State in enforcing construction products regulation. This document does not explicitly address any activities that OPSS may undertake in relation to construction products, however, OPSS would, in conducting any such activities, follow the general approach set out in this document, as applicable.

How we regulate

We operate across a range of business see footnote 3 sectors with a focus on technical, environmental and product-based regulations. Across all of the areas in which we deliver regulation, our aim is to support and enable businesses to meet their obligations: the intention is to give compliant businesses the confidence to innovate, invest and grow, while ensuring the necessary protections are in place. We take proportionate action in response to non-compliance, including tackling those that put people or the environment at risk and businesses that may gain an economic advantage by ignoring their compliance obligations.

We act in accordance with the Regulators’ Code and the Growth Duty – which can be downloaded from the following web pages – and the statutory principles of good regulation see footnote 4:

Download the Regulators’ Code

Download guidance on the Growth Duty

This means that we aim to deliver all of our activities in a way that is proportionate, consistent, targeted, transparent and accountable:

• We ensure that information, guidance, and advice are available to help businesses to understand and meet legal requirements (see Helping you to get it right).
• We target our checks on compliance where we believe they are most needed (see Checking compliance).
• We deal proportionately with non-compliance with legal requirements and with product safety issues, as set out in our Enforcement Policy (see Responding to non-compliance).
• We administer a number of regulatory process requirements in specific areas of regulation, including verification of FLEGT licences for imported timber; receiving and processing cosmetic product notifications and heat network notifications; and managing annual data returns by battery producers.

We have a dedicated team of officers who have the appropriate knowledge, skills, and competency to deliver the services provided. We have arrangements in place to ensure the ongoing professional competency of all officers.

As part of the wider regulatory system in the UK and beyond, we work closely with other national and local regulators to share expertise and streamline our engagement with businesses. In particular, we work closely with local authorities in relation to consumer product safety and legal metrology, and with border control authorities when we are acting at the border.

We have good working relationships with other regulators – nationally and internationally – which enable us to deliver a more joined up and consistent service. This includes sharing information and data on compliance and risk, where the law allows, to help target regulatory resources and identify non-compliance. We recognise that businesses will receive advice and inspections from other organisations, and we will do our best to work with them where appropriate to ensure that businesses receive a co-ordinated service.

For details of our approach to managing and sharing information see Managing and sharing information.

Working with you

In all their dealings with us, businesses can expect, and will receive, an efficient and professional service. Our officers will be courteous and polite and will, where appropriate:

• identify themselves by name and provide contact details
• seek to gain an understanding of how the business operates
• provide details of how to discuss any concerns the business may have
• agree timescales, expectations, and preferred methods of communication
• ensure that the business is kept informed of progress on any outstanding issues

DBT is a public authority for the purposes of the Human Rights Act 1998 and we apply the principles in the Act. In particular, we will have due regard to the right to property, the right to a fair trial and the right to respect for private and family life, home, and correspondence.

We work across a wide range of legislation, and this provides us with different powers, for example in relation to entering business premises, inspecting or seizing products and documentation, and dealing with non-compliance. In exercising our powers, we have regard to relevant legal requirements and codes of practice. We are committed to treating those we regulate in a fair, unbiased and objective manner.

We are committed to being transparent in our activities so that it is clear both what we expect from businesses and what can be expected of us, as outlined in this document. We publish information about our performance so that businesses can see how we are doing. This includes an annual Delivery Report that includes detail of our enforcement activities, and periodic publication of a list of statutory enforcement actions that we have taken:

Read our latest Delivery Report

View our list of statutory enforcement actions

Helping you to get it right

We want to ensure that businesses have access to information and guidance to support them to understand their legal obligations and to be compliant and successful. We make information and guidance on meeting legal requirements available through legislation specific webpages:

Read our information on each regulatory area

We are always keen to take opportunities to work with business representative groups, such as trade associations, to raise awareness and understanding of legal requirements among the businesses they represent.

Advice: consumer product safety and legal metrology

UK businesses requiring advice on compliance with consumer product safety obligations should initially contact their local authority.

Find contact details for your local Trading Standards Service in England, Scotland or Wales

Find contact details for your local district council in Northern Ireland

Businesses requiring advice on compliance with legal metrology obligations should also initially contact their local Trading Standards Service (or the Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland), other than where their enquiry relates to requirements that apply to placing measuring instruments or non-automatic weighing machines on the market. These enquiries should be addressed to OPSS.

Where a local authority is acting as primary authority for the business it may approach us for support in our capacity as a Supporting Regulator in Primary Authority. This may include support in relation to the development of Primary Authority Advice that is being developed by the primary authority. Further information, including details of our approach to cost recovery as a Supporting Regulator, is available:

Download the Primary Authority support request template for product safety and legal metrology

Advice: other areas of regulation

In all other areas of regulation enforced by OPSS, it is important to us that businesses feel able to come to us for advice when it is needed. We welcome approaches from businesses that seek advice and clarification on compliance related issues and we won’t move directly to enforcement action just because we are asked a question or told about a problem.

Where we receive a request for advice, from a business that has failed to comply with regulations that we enforce, our primary concerns will be to ensure protection for people and the environment; to ensure adequate steps are taken to address the non-compliance and its effects; and to minimise the likelihood of future non-compliance (see Responding to non-compliance). We will use our powers to take enforcement action where we consider this to be appropriate, in line with our Enforcement Policy.

We do not charge or recover costs for the provision of advice to those we regulate, other than where we are acting in our capacity as a Supporting Regulator under Primary Authority (see above). Where advice is required to be tailored to the particular needs and circumstances of a business, we will:

• seek to fully understand the nature of the request
• discuss what is required to achieve compliance
• provide clear, reliable advice that can be easily understood and implemented
• distinguish legal requirements from suggested good practice
• ensure that any verbal advice is confirmed in writing if requested
• acknowledge good practice and compliance

Compliance enquiries can be made by contacting us (see How to contact us). In responding to requests for guidance or advice we will, within 5 working days:

• acknowledge the request and inform the business which officer has been allocated to it
• advise the business when it can expect a substantive response
• explain what we may or may not be able to do, so that the business knows what to expect

Where we are unable to provide a full response to the request within 5 working days, we will keep the business informed of progress.

Statutory notifications

Some of the legislation that we enforce requires businesses to notify us if they have identified an unsafe or non-compliant product that they have placed on the market or supplied/ made available, along with the corrective measures that they have taken subsequently. The notification requirements may differ in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Where we receive a notification from a business in relation to an unsafe or non-compliant product, our primary concerns will be to ensure protection for people and the environment; to ensure adequate steps are taken to address the non-compliance and its effects; and to minimise the likelihood of future non-compliance (see Responding to non-compliance).

Information provided to OPSS (or other enforcement authorities) is handled as set out in our guidance:

Read guidance on the notification of unsafe and noncompliant products

Checking compliance

We make the best use of scientific evidence, data, risk and intelligence when planning our enforcement and market surveillance activities and making decisions on which sectors, products and businesses to focus on. We undertake extensive engagement with consumer bodies, business representative bodies non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders to build our understanding and inform our decisions.

We monitor compliance with the regulations we enforce in various ways including through reviews of technical documentation, inspections, product examination and testing, and investigations.

Inspections

We will give reasonable notice that we intend to visit business premises – unless we have specific reason to believe that an unannounced visit is more appropriate – and we will undertake our visits at reasonable hours.

In the normal course of visits to business premises, our officers will:

• present their authorisation card
• explain the reason and purpose of the visit
• explain any powers of entry, and associated powers, that they are using
• exercise discretion in front of customers and staff and, wherever possible, seek to minimise the potential for causing reputational damage to the business
• seek, wherever possible, to cause as little disruption to the legitimate conduct of a business as is reasonably practicable
• have regard to a business’ approach to compliance, and use this information to inform future interactions
• provide information, guidance and advice to support a business in meeting its statutory obligations, if required
• provide a written record of the visit

In certain circumstances we may consider it appropriate to offer a remote meeting – either online or by telephone call – as an alternative to visiting business premises. When conducting such meetings, our officers will follow the above principles, as appropriate.

Product assessment and testing

OPSS monitors products that are available for sale via all routes, including on online selling platforms and social media platforms. OPSS also purchases products for compliance assessment and testing via different routes, including on online selling platforms.

When we purchase products for compliance assessment or testing, we will inform the appropriate business or businesses. We will notify the results of compliance assessment or testing in a timely manner to the appropriate business or businesses. This will usually be the manufacturer (or their representative), the importer; or the distributor.

We may choose not to notify individual businesses of products purchased where this is being conducted purely for research purposes.

Requiring documents and information

Some of the legislation that we enforce requires businesses to:

• draw up documentation
• retain documentation and information and make it available for inspection
• provide specified documentation and information when required to do so by OPSS, or in some cases another enforcement authority

We will exercise our powers to require production of technical documentation, records and information only where we consider this to be proportionate in the circumstances. We may, for example, require a business to provide technical documentation and information as an alternative to visiting the business and inspecting technical documents on site.

Where we exercise powers to require production of technical documentation or information we will:

• explain the reason and purpose of the requirement
• explain any powers that we are using
• explain what documentation and/ or information must be provided
• explain how the documentation and/ or information should be provided
• set out the period within which the documentation and/ or information must be provided
• explain what action we may take if the required documentation and/ or information is not provided within the specified period

Documentation and/ or information that is provided will be assessed in a timely manner and we will notify the business that provided the documentation and/ or information of the outcome of this assessment.

Checking goods at the border

Consignments of goods arriving in the UK may be subject to controls to ensure that they meet the requirements of applicable legislation.

OPSS, working with border control authorities and other market surveillance authorities, may carry out checks on goods and may determine that the goods should be held until further documentary or physical checks can be made.

Where OPSS determine that a consignment, or part of a consignment, should be held pending further documentary or physical checks, we will notify the importer and/or authorised agent and will aim, within 3 working days, to:

• explain the reason(s) for holding the goods
• explain any powers that we are using
• explain what documentation and/ or information must be provided and how it should be provided
• set out the period within which the documentation and/ or information must be provided and explain what action we may take if the required documentation and/ or information is not provided within the specified period
• advise where we need to carry out testing on any products

OPSS will keep the appropriate person(s) informed throughout the process and if our checks identify non-compliance we will explain the options open to them, and the actions that we may take, which may include applying for forfeiture of the goods.

If, after these checks, we are satisfied, we will clearly communicate this to the appropriate person(s), and the owner or responsible person for the storage location where the consignment is located. Information will also be provided to the border control authority so the goods can be released, subject to any further controls.

Responding to non-compliance

Our aim, when dealing with non-compliance, is to deliver fair and objective enforcement in a manner consistent with the intentions of the legislation and the necessity of delivering a robust and credible enforcement regime. Where we are investigating any failure to meet legal obligations, we will respond proportionately, taking account of the nature, seriousness, and circumstances of the breach, including taking firm enforcement action when necessary.

Download our Enforcement Policy, which explains how we will deal with breaches of law. It is also available by contacting us (see How to contact us).

Non-compliance or suspected non-compliance by a business should be reported: see below.

Reporting non-compliance

Any allegations or information about non-compliance or suspected non-compliance in relation to matters that are regulated by OPSS, other than consumer product safety, can be passed to OPSS by contacting us (see How to contact us).

We will always ask for a name and contact details to enable us to keep in touch as the matter progresses. We will only deal with anonymous complaints and enquiries where we judge it appropriate to do so.

In responding to allegations or information about non-compliance or suspected non-compliance:

• we will acknowledge the allegation or information within 5 working days
• we may request further information
• we will critically assess the information provided against a range of criteria, to help us determine the appropriate response
• we will explain how we may respond, so that you know what to expect
• we will determine whether it is appropriate to share information about the outcome of the allegation on a case-by-case basis

We treat all contact with the service in confidence unless we have been given permission to share personal details with others as part of the matter we are dealing with or there is an operational reason which provides an appropriate legal basis as to why we need to share personal information, e.g. a legal obligation or public task.

For details of our approach to managing and sharing information see Managing and sharing information.

Consumer product safety

Businesses wishing to raise a concern about the safety of a consumer product should contact the relevant local authority Trading Standards Service (in Great Britain) or district council (in Northern Ireland). OPSS provides specialist support and advice to these local authorities in relation to their enforcement of consumer product safety requirements and coordinates work across local authorities where action is needed on a national scale.

Read advice for consumers on product safety

Consumers should raise any concerns about the safety of a product, in the first instance, by contacting:

• In England and Wales: Citizens Advice consumer helpline
• In Northern Ireland: Consumerline
• In Scotland: Consumer Advice

These organisations may, where appropriate, send a copy of the information provided to the relevant local authority who will make a decision about what further action to take.

Having your say

Feedback

We value input from businesses and others to help us ensure our service is meeting your needs. We would like to hear from you whether the experience of us has been good or in need of improvement. This helps us to ensure that we keep doing the right things and make changes where necessary. We use satisfaction surveys from time to time but we welcome feedback at any time. Feedback can be provided by contacting us (see How to contact us). Any feedback that we receive will be acknowledged, considered and, where appropriate, responded to.

Complaints, challenges and appeals

We are always willing to discuss the reasons why we are considering or have made a given decision. Where we take enforcement action, there is often a statutory right to appeal. Where there is not a statutory right to appeal, businesses are still entitled to challenge our advice, actions, or decisions if they believe that we are wrong. We publish clear information for businesses about rights to challenge or appeal against our enforcement actions or decisions and we will always inform a business about its rights at the appropriate time:

Read information on challenges and appeals to our enforcement actions

OPSS is committed to providing a high quality, accessible and responsive service. We welcome any comments or complaints about our service, including when we get things wrong. Where anyone affected by our activities is dissatisfied with our service or behaviour, the complaint or comments should be sent as soon as possible. We take all complaints very seriously and our aim is to resolve any problems or difficulties quickly and fairly. We manage complaints about our service, or about the conduct of our officers, through our Complaints Procedure:

Read our Complaints Procedure

Developing our services

We recognise the important role that trade associations and other business organisations play in representing the interests of business in particular sectors. We also value input and scrutiny of our activities from consumer groups, environmental groups, and other interested parties. We engage proactively with such organisations and are always happy to welcome approaches from them.

We value the views of businesses and others in ensuring that we are delivering our services to meet the needs of our different stakeholders. We work in particular with OPSS’ Business Reference Panel. This group of over 100 organisations and trade associations, representing a wider network of around 1 million businesses, is always happy to welcome new members – any businesses interested in participating should contact us: see below.

How to contact us

Please use the contact details below:

• Email: opss.enquiries@beis.gov.uk
• Telephone: 0121 345 1201
• Post: Office for Product Safety and Standards, Cannon House – 4th Floor, 18 Priory Queensway, Birmingham, B4 6PH

We will seek to work with you in the most appropriate way to meet your individual needs. We can make information available in different formats and have access to translation and interpretation services:

Read information about accessibility

Managing and sharing information

We share information and data on compliance and risk with other regulators where the law allows. In sharing information about those we regulate, we will handle personal information in accordance with the requirements under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018.

All personal data will be managed in accordance with the UK GDPR and DPA and other relevant legal requirements. Details on how we will use personal data, and individual’s rights in relation to that data, are set out in our Privacy Notice:

Read our Privacy Notice

Read information about your rights to access information that we have not published (under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, or the General Data Protection Regulation).

Footnotes

1 Our product safety responsibilities cover all consumer products, except for vehicles, medicines and food.

2 In some of these areas of regulation we deliver on behalf of other parts of government, including the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles.

3 The term ‘business’ is used throughout this document to refer to any legal entity that is regulated, including any form of business, individual, charity, public sector body or other form of organisation.

4 Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006, Part 2.