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Chemical
Safety Unit and Flammability & Radiation Unit
We
deal with regulations concerning the chemical safety of consumer goods and
dangerous substances.
We
implement the Fireworks (Safety) Regulations 1997 and The Cosmetic
Products (Safety) Regulations 1996. We also deal with the
flammability of consumer products including furniture and nightwear,
and the radiation safety of consumer goods.
 Click
the button to read our fact sheet and FAQs about the furniture flammability regulations.
Guidance Documents
We
have produced Guidance Documents to the various Regulations:
they can be viewed on-line by clicking the 'Guidance Note'
button below. To order free printed copies please click the 'Order
Now' button.
Fireworks
Please
click to button to read our Fact Sheet and FAQs on the Sale and Use
of Fireworks.
Fireworks
supplied in the UK - whether they are imported or manufactured here
- must be authorised by the Health and Safety Executive. They must
also be safe as required by the Fireworks (Safety) Regulations 1997.
At present, in both cases the benchmark is BS 7114.
It is an
offence, which can result in a fine of up to £5000 (and/or a prison
sentence), to:
• supply
(which includes retail sale), unsafe fireworks;
• sell
fireworks to persons apparently under the age of 18 years;
• supply to
the general public the more powerful types of fireworks specified
in the Regulations.
• possess
fireworks in a public place if under the age of 18; and,
• possess a
category 4 firework if other than a fireworks professional.
In addition,
retailers must register with their local authority before storing
fireworks.
Under the
Explosives Act 1875, it is also an offence to let-off fireworks in a
public place; or to alter them without a licence from HSE. Again,
the penalty for infringement is a fine of up to £5,000.
Firework (Safety) Regulations
The
Fireworks (Safety) Regulations 1997 were published in September
1997. Some measures came into effect in October 1997, with the
remainder taking effect from 31 December 1997.
The
Regulations SI 1997 No 2294 (ISBN 0-11-064962-1) can be obtained
from the Stationery Office and its agents.
  Guide to the
Firework (Safety) Regulations.
The Fireworks Act 2003
The Fireworks
Act 2003 received Royal Assent on 18 September 2003. It
started life as a private members Bill, introduced to Parliament
by Bill Tynan. The Bill, throughout, was supported by the
Government.
The main purpose of the
Act is to make provision for the Secretary of State to address a
range of fireworks issues where present powers in other Acts of
Parliament are insufficient.
In particular, it
enables the Government to address the dimension of firework use -
thereby increasing the scope beyond that of the Fireworks (Safety)
Regulations 1997 (see above), which is limited to product safety
alone.
In this way it is
possible to increase the protection of children, older people and pets from the irresponsible use of fireworks - a
body of legislation designed to make sure that all will benefit from the fun that fireworks
can be.
Regulatory
Impact Assessment (RIA) for the Fireworks Bill - in accordance
with Government policy on all regulatory or legislative proposals.
Firework's Act, DTI Press Notice, Sept. 2003.
Fireworks
Regulations 2003 (Possession Offences)
The Government has recently made Regulations
under sections 3 and 5 of the Fireworks Act 2003. The measures
introduced are designed to curtail the activities of anti-social
elements in communities - making it an offence for the under 18s
to possess fireworks in a public place and for any member of the
general public to possess category 4 fireworks, that is, those
fireworks used by professional display operators.
DTI
Press Notice 5 November 2003 - Measures to tackle the anti-social use of
fireworks.
The following
document is a regulatory impact assessment - detailing the social,
economic and environmental costs of these Regulations.
Regulatory Impact
Assessment.
Firework Injury Data
Fireworks
injury data for the UK covering a four week period in October –
November 2002.
DTI Fireworks Safety Campaign 2003
 Every
year, DTI runs a fireworks safety campaign with the support of
organisations such as Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT), Fight
for Sight and ROSPA.
Please
click here for further Fireworks Safety Campaign information
and resources.
Firework
Code.
Further Information.
Further information on fireworks and firework safety may be found
on the UK Fireworks
Safety Site
Child
Care Articles and Baby Products
Prams,
pushchairs, hood cords and bunk beds are subject to specific safety
Regulations. The safety of other nursery products is controlled by
the General Product Safety Regulations 1994 with reference to
various relevant British and European safety standards or codes of
practice. Day-to-day enforcement of the regulations is the
responsibility of local authority trading standards departments.
A
report was published in November 1999 entitled "Choking risks
to children under four from toys and other objects". 
Toys
All
toys supplied in the UK are subject to the Toys (Safety) Regulations
1995. The Regulations implement a European Directive and the same
safety requirements therefore apply throughout the European
Community.
All
toys supplied in the UK (and the rest of the Community) must satisfy
essential safety requirements and bear the CE marking as a
declaration that this is the case. They must also be accompanied by
the name and address of the person who first placed the toy on the
market.
It
should be noted that the CE marking is to indicate that the toys are
entitled to access to Community markets and is not a quality mark
aimed at consumers.
Enforcement
authorities have powers to remove unsafe toys from the market and
bring prosecutions. Supplying (which includes retail sale) unsafe
toys can result in a fine of up to £5,000, or a prison sentence of
up to six months, or both.
Fact
sheet on toy safety regulations
 
A
booklet explaining the legal requirements and other issues
concerning the Toys (safety) Regulations 1995.
 Toy
testing - list of UK Approved BodiesList
of European Standards (EC Web Site).
A
selection of safety leaflets produced by the DTI may be viewed in
PDF format by clicking here
Gas
and Electrical Safety
The
safety of gas and electrical appliances is the responsibility of the
Department of Trade and Industry Standards and Technical Regulations
Directorate. STRD can provide information about the EC Low Voltage
Directive (LVD) and the national regulations that implement them.
General
Product Safety
The
General Product Safety Regulations 1994
The
Regulations transpose the current General Product Safety Directive
(ref. 92/59/EEC). They apply to new and second-hand consumer
products, except products that are covered by specific European
safety legislation. Products covered include (but are not restricted
to) clothing, medicines, primary agricultural and horticultural
products, DIY tools and equipment, food and drink, household goods,
nursery goods, chemicals and pesticides and motor vehicles. The
Regulations place a general duty on all suppliers of consumer goods
to supply products that are safe in normal or reasonably foreseeable
use.
 The
Department of Trade and Industry has produced a Guide to The
Regulations explaining the requirements in more detail.
General Product
Safety Regulations 1994 - Guidance for Businesses Consumer and
Enforcement Authorities.
Revision
of the General Product Safety Directive
A
revised General Product Safety Directive (Directive 2001/95/EC) was
adopted by the Council of Ministers in September 2001 and by the
European Parliament in October 2001. The revised text was
published in the Official Journal on 15 January 2002.
Revised
text of Directive (255Kb).
Member
States have until 15 January 2004 to transpose the revised Directive
into their national legislation.
The
DTI launched a public consultation in 2001 inviting
views on the transposition of the revised Directive into UK law.
Consultation
document (466Kb).Summary of the responses to the consultation
(68Kb).
The
DTI is now in the process of preparing draft legislation transposing
the revised Directive into UK law. We expect to begin a
further public consultation, seeking views on the draft legislation,
early in 2004.
Product
Recall
 (1.1MB).
The
Department of Trade and Industry has issued a good practice guide on
consumer product recall for industry and commerce. The guide is
aimed at improving the effectiveness of recalls of unsafe products
from the UK market.
free printed version.
Product
Liability
Introduction
Directive
85/374/EEC, which was transposed into UK law in Part 1 of the
Consumer Protection Act 1987, imposes strict liability on producers
for harm caused by defective products. This means that people who
are injured by defective products can sue for compensation without
having to prove the producer negligent, provided that they can prove
that the product was defective and the defect in the product caused
the injury.
The
Directive applies to consumer products and products used at a place
of work.
An
amendment (Directive 1999/34EC) was adopted on 10 May 1999
extending product liability for defective products to include
primary agricultural products and game with effect from 4 December
2000. This means that all products are now covered.
 The
DTI has produced a Guide to the Consumer Protection Act 1987 which
included a summary of the product liability provisions.
Review
Of The EC Product Liability Directive
The
European Commission has recently reviewed Directive
85/374/EEC, as it is required to every five years. The Commission
launched the review by publishing a Green Paper on Liability for
Defective Products in July 1999.
Summary of the Green Paper.
Complete Green Paper.
The
Commission published its report on the conclusions of the review in
January 2001. The report does not recommend any change to the
Directive, but proposes that the Commission should carry out further
studies of some parts of the Directive. Areas to be studied include
the "development risks defence". This allows the producer
to avoid liability for a defective product if he can prove that the
defect could not have been detected at the time when the product was
put into circulation, given the state of technical and scientific
knowledge at that time.
Commission's report of review.
Safety
of Services for Consumers
European Commission Report on the Safety of Services
On 6 June 2003 The European Commission adopted
a report on the safety
of services for consumers.
Background
The Commission undertook to present to the European
Parliament and the Council of Ministers, by the end of 2002, a
report on the safety of services provided to consumers in the
European Community. In the course of developing the report the
Commission published a consultation paper in August 2002 on the
options for ensuring the safety of services. The options identified
for action included:
- data collection to monitor the safety of
service activities,
- sharing best practice in services safety
management between Member States,
- a safety management scheme, which would allow
service providers to seek voluntary certification that they meet
specified safety criteria,
- new regulatory requirements, such as a
‘general safety requirement’ for service activities,
equivalent to the product safety requirement imposed by the
General Product Safety Directive.
The Report
The report notes that the inadequacy of available data and
the lack of evidence of specific internal market difficulties make
it difficult to justify any specific option for substantive
Community action at this stage.
It therefore sees the immediate priority to be to improve
the knowledge base and to monitor systematically the policies and
measures of the Member States.
It proposes specifically to put in place a legislative
framework aimed at monitoring and supporting national policies and
measures by:
·
establishing
procedures for administrative co-operation between Member States in
order to systematically exchange information on policy and
regulatory developments and the results achieved
·
setting
provisions for the systematic collection and data on the risks of
services and the establishment of an EU database
·
aiming
at the establishment of procedures for setting European standards,
if and when the evidence indicates a need.
The Commission believes that it would be appropriate to
focus on the sectors most relevant to consumers in a cross-border
perspective, e.g. hotels, camping and other tourist facilities and
related sports and leisure activities.
Report on the safety of services
for consumers.
Annex - Summary of Member
States’ policies and legislation on the safety of services
Safety of Services in the UK
The
UK regulates the safety of services provided to consumers under
health and safety at work legislation, on the basis that any service
provided to consumers is also a work activity. The Health and
Safety at Work etc Act 1974 has as its objective the protection of
the public, as well as employees, from safety risks arising from
work activities. This legal framework, for which the Health
and Safety Executive has responsibility, is supplemented by a range
of safety measures in specific services sectors.
Home
Accident Surveillance System (HASS) and
Leisure Accident Surveillance System
(LASS)
HASS
and LASS are two linked databases holding details of accidents that
caused a serious enough injury to warrant a visit to a hospital. The
data was collected in 16-18 UK hospitals.
In May 2003, ministers announced that the DTI would no
longer fund the collection and publication of HASS and LASS data. This has,
therefore, stopped with the publication of the 24th
Report. Copies of the reports can still be ordered below.
The DTI is also ending its enquiry service based on the
HASS/LASS database. The database has been transferred to RoSPA and from 1st
January 2004, enquiries about HASS and LASS statistics should be addressed to
RoSPA at:
The Information Centre
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
Edgbaston Park
353 Bristol Road
Birmingham B5 7ST
E Mail: infocentre@rospa.com
Tel: 0121 248 2066
Fax: 0121 248 2001
Annual Reports - Home &
Leisure Accident Surveillance System
Safety
Awareness Promotion
The
Consumer Safety part of Consumer and Competition Policy Directorate provides a range of free safety literature in bulk for further
dissemination by industry, local authorities and safety
professionals.
A
selection of our most popular leaflets can be viewed by Clicking
Here.
Safety
Awareness campaigns are run in collaboration with the voluntary
sector, local authorities and business. The main annual campaign
involves fireworks.
In
addition, we use television publicity and a
variety of other methods to promote Home Safety
including financial support for the Royal Society for the Prevention
of Accidents (RoSPA).
Home
Safety Network
The DTI's Home
Safety Network web site provides an in depth overview of consumer safety research and
safety awareness advice. It also gives details of how to obtain
leaflets and research publications.
Safety
Research
The
Consumer Safety part of Consumer Affairs Directorate commissions
research for a variety of reasons, for example:
- To
understand high/rising accidents statistics;
- To
help address concerns raised by consumer interest groups;
- To
underpin work to the negotiation of new European consumer safety
measures;
- To
address (technical) difficulties which Trading Standards
Departments have in applying tests specified in regulations;
- To
help evaluate the success of safety awareness campaigns,
regulatory controls;
The
fruits of this research are published and disseminated to industry,
consumer interest groups and standard bodies both within the UK and
outside it, particularly in Europe.
For
details of consumer safety research commissioned by the DTI please
visit our Safety Research Reports page.
DTI
Contact
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Guide to the Cosmetic Products (Safety) Regulations 1996.
Guide to the Dangerous Substances and Preparations (Nickel)
(Safety) Regulations 2000.
Guide to the Furniture and Furnishings
(Fire) (Safety)
Regulations. 
Guide to the Nightwear (Safety) Regulations.
