The General Product Safety Regulations 1994

UK Statutory Instrument 1994 No. 2328 — creates 3 criminal offences.

Made

5 September 1994

In force from

3 October 1994

Extent

Not stated

Subject

Food, consumer protection, trading standards, product safety and age-restricted sales

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — published with the instrument by the department that made it. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

These Regulations implement the provisions of Council Directive 92/59/EEC on general product safety (OJ No. L228, 11.8.92, p.24). They impose requirements concerning the safety of products intended for consumers or likely to be used by consumers if such products are to be placed on the market by producers or supplied by distributors. These Regulations do not apply to second-hand products which are antiques or products supplied for repair or reconditioning before use subject to a proviso or where specific rules of Community law govern all aspects of safety of a product (regulation 3). Also, they do not apply insofar as specific rules of Community law govern an aspect of the safety of a particular product (regulation 4). The provisions of section 10 of the Consumer Protection Act 1987 (c. 43) are disapplied in relation to products insofar as they impose general safety requirements in respect of those products (regulation 5). Regulation 7 provides that a product may not be placed on the market unless it is a safe product. Regulation 8 imposes requirements on a producer to provide information to consumers and adopt measures to inform himself of risks a product might present and identifies some measures which might be taken. Requirements are imposed on distributors to act with due care to ensure that the requirements of regulation 7 are met. In particular, a distributor must not supply a dangerous product (regulation 9(a)) and he must participate, within the limits of his activities, in monitoring the safety of products placed on the market (regulation 9(b)). Requirements in relation to preparatory acts to placing a product on the market or supplying it are provided (regulation 13). Products which comply with specific rules of United Kingdom law laying down health and safety requirements are deemed to comply with the general safety requirement (regulation 10(1)) and the Regulations specify the means of assessing conformity with the general safety requirement in the absence of such specific rules (regulation 10(2)). The Regulations make provision for enforcement; regulation 11 provides for enforcement authorities and makes provision in respect of powers of those authorities. These include powers to issue suspension notices and to obtain information. Regulation 12 provides for offences, including offences in respect of preparatory acts relating to placing products on the market and supplying products. A defence of due diligence is provided in certain circumstances (regulation 14). Penalties are prescribed for offences under the Regulations; for offences under regulation 12 or 13 the penalty on summary conviction is imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale, or both. Level 5 on the standard scale is £5,000 in Great Britain and in Northern Ireland it is £2,000. Failure to comply with a prohibition notice or notice to warn under section 13 of the 1987 Act or a suspension notice under section 14 of that Act or to provide information pursuant to section 18 of that Act are offences attracting similar penalties to those prescribed in relation to offences under regulation 12 save in relation to the provision of information where failure to provide information attracts a fine on summary conviction or on conviction on indictment. Forfeiture of products may be ordered on the application of an enforcement authority. Regulation 6 provides for a consequential repeal of section 10(3)(b)(ii) of the 1987 Act and revocation of the Approval of Safety Standards Regulations 1987 (S.I. 1987/1911). A compliance cost assessment is available, copies of which have been placed in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament. Copies of the assessment are also available from the Consumer Affairs Division of the Department of Trade and Industry, Room 309, 10-18 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0NN.

Offences created by this instrument

• Any person who contravenes regulation 7 or 9(a) shall be guilty of an offence regulation 12 · Status not determined · Strict liability
• No producer or distributor shall— a offer or agree to place on the market any dangerous product or expose or possess… regulation 13 · Status not determined · Strict liability
• Liability of persons other than principal offender regulation 15(1) · Status not determined · Strict liability

What Parliament said about it

Contributions, debates and written statements mentioning this instrument by name. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

• Deregulation (Rag Flock And Other Filling Materials Act 1951) (Repeal) Order 1996 Lords · Lords Chamber · 5 December 1996

  The Government are satisfied that the repeal of the Act will not compromise the protection it was enacted to provide. This protection will be offered by the existing provisions of the General Product Safety Regulations 1994 (which implement an EU directive) and the British Standard 1425 of 1991. These place responsibilities on producers and distributors of products (including second-hand products) to supply only those products that are safe, that is in this case, products that are clean, free from contaminants and impurities. In order to ensure that producers and manufacturers supply…

• Control Of Fireworks Commons · Commons Chamber · 8 January 2002 · Mr. Robert Key (Salisbury)

  I rise to oppose the Bill, for reasons that I shall explain. First, let me say how delighted I am that the hon. Member for Brent, North (Mr. Gardiner) has raised this issue. I oppose the Bill for two reasons. First, I do not like banning things without extremely good reason. As a Conservative, I believe in more, rather than less, freedom, and I certainly do not like banning things unless I am certain that the legislation will work, which this Bill will not. Secondly, I represent in my constituency the excellent organisation Pipedown, the campaign for freedom from piped music, which has asked…

• Gardening Equipment (Safety) Commons · Westminster Hall · 23 February 2005 · Mr. Sutcliffe

  I am sorry to hear that. The decision to move the HASS statistics was based on a resource issue when the Department of Health was producing statistics about hospital and doctor visits. Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents wanted to take on HASS. In the spirit of my hon. Friend's request, I shall investigate further and find out what the problem is. I hope that I, as the Minister with responsibility for consumers, and the all-party group on gardening and horticulture will develop a relationship and deal with some of these issues in a practical way that helps consumers and the…

• Fireworks Safety Commons · Commons Chamber · 29 October 2009 · Adam Afriyie

  I thank the Minister for his intervention. That debate on fireworks safety, which led to the introduction of the legislation, was conducted sensibly and rationally. It was a good step in the right direction, although there is always hesitation from Conservative Members over enabling legislation. This is not the first time, therefore, that we have considered fireworks safety. There has been a raft of fireworks safety legislation and regulations stretching back to the Explosives Act 1875. There followed the Protection of Animals Act 1911, the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, the…

How Parliament handled it

Parliament's Statutory Instruments service records procedure from May 2017 onwards, and this instrument predates it. That is a limit of the source, not a statement that nothing happened.

Check the source

• This instrument on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text, including amendments made since
• Other instruments from 1994