The Government has announced the creation of a new national oversight body tasked with identifying consumer risks and managing responses to large-scale product recalls and repairs.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards will enable the UK to meet the “evolving challenges of product safety” by responding to expanding international trade, the growth in on-line shopping and the increasing rate of product innovation.

This is part of the Government’s response to the Working Group on Product Recalls and Safety. Established in October 2016 by former Consumer Minister Margot James, the group of product and fire safety experts was brought together to build on the recommendations made by Lynn Faulds Wood in her independent review into consumer product recalls.

Business Minister Andrew Griffiths said: “The new office will strengthen the UK’s already tough product-safety regime and will allow consumers to continue to buy, secure in the knowledge that there is an effective system in place if products need to be repaired or replaced.

"I thank the working group for their efforts to help improve product safety, and I look forward to working with them in this new phase.”

The Government will continue to work with consumer groups, manufacturers and retailers to ensure that the office co-ordinates the UK’s product-safety regime as effectively as possible, stressing that it will not reduce the legal responsibility for manufacturers, importers and retailers to present safe products to the market and to take rapid and effective action when safety issues arise.