LGA responds to Which? report on product safety

15 Feb 2018 09:10 AM

Cllr Simon Blackburn, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board, responds to Which?’s report on the number of house fires a week caused by faulty white goods and calling for a 90 day action plan for the new Office for Product Safety.

Councils are clear that manufacturers have the lead responsibility to consumers to make sure that their products are safe, and to take steps to address this where faults are identified. However, the government framework for product safety must support this as much as possible.

“Councils support the new Office for Product Safety and Standards, which will provide much-needed central capacity to help local trading standards teams on product safety issues. But this is just the first step. It’s essential that consumers have access to as much information as possible, and we would urge the Office to create an easily accessible, comprehensive database of recalled products. This would enable consumers to get as full a picture as possible about the safety of the products they are buying, and should be supported by all manufacturers.

“The consequences of faulty appliances catching fire are devastating, with property damaged and in some cases, lives lost. Council trading standards teams will work closely with the new Office to keep consumers safe.”

Revealed: the brands linked to the most appliance fires