GOV.UK
Guidance
National regulation: enforcement services
How the Office for Product Safety and Standards contributes to the national regulatory landscape.
The Office for Product Safety and Standards (Safety & Standards) provides enforcement services on behalf of government departments including BEIS, Defra and DfT.
We are working towards providing a regulatory environment in which businesses have the confidence to invest and grow and citizens and communities are properly protected. We do this by taking a risk-based and proportionate approach to our enforcement activities and by operating under the The Regulators’ Code.
What we enforce
Compliance and guidance on the following areas of legislation can be found on the following links:
Access and benefit sharing of genetic resources
Alternative fuels infrastructure
Batteries and accumulators (placing on the market) regulations
Ecodesign of energy related products regulations
End of life vehicles regulations
Energy information regulations
European Union timber regulation
Forest law enforcement, governance and trade licensing
Heat network metering and billing regulations
Noise emission in the environment by equipment for use outdoors regulations
Guidance for businesses we regulate
These four documents define what you can expect from us, specify our approach to dealing with non-compliance, explain how you can complain or comment about our service, and clarify your statutory and non-statutory rights to challenge or appeal our regulatory actions or decisions.
Safety & Standards enforcement: service standards
Safety & Standards enforcement: enforcement policy
Safety & Standards: complaints policy
Safety & Standards enforcement: challenges and appeals guidance
An overview of what we do is also provided in our .
Non-qualifying regulatory provisions
The Regulatory Policy Committee has confirmed that none of the measures or activities of Safety & Standards presented in the following summaries should be considered as qualifying regulatory provisions for the purposes of the Business Impact Target.
Contact us
Safety & Standards publishes a range of information and guidance on the legislation that we are responsible for enforcing. If you have a specific enquiry about compliance we recommend that you complete the online enquiry form, choose the relevant legislation and follow the on screen instructions.
Alternatively you can contact the Safety & Standards helpdesk on 0121 345 1218.
It is open:
- Monday to Thursday 09:00 to 17:00
- Friday 09:00 to 16:00
Or in writing to:
Office for Product Safety and Standards
Lower Ground Floor
Victoria Square House
Victoria Square
Birmingham
B2 4AJ
Free email alert service
Subscribe to our free email alert service to keep up to date on the latest developments concerning the legislation that Safety & Standards enforces.
Published 20 September 2016
Last updated 10 October 2017 + show all updates
Last updated 10 October 2017 + show all updates
- Enforcement services summary leaflet added.
- Four documents added on Regulatory Delivery's approach to business regulation: our service standards, enforcement policy, complaints policy, and challenges and appeals guidance.
- First published.