OPSS issues children’s Halloween costume warning
Public asked to be vigilant following tests.
The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has asked the public to be vigilant following tests carried out on Halloween fancy dress costumes for children.
Tests on 128 costumes aimed at under seven years olds found more than 80 per cent failed basic safety tests, including those for flammability and strangulation from cords.
Costumes were purchased from a range of online marketplaces and tested against the Toys (Safety) Regulations 2011. All those which failed have since been removed from sale by the platforms.
OPSS is now urging the public to always buy costumes from trusted sources and take care when near fires, particularly open flames.
Head and neck drawstrings or cords can also strangle or entrap children so always check for long cords or other strangulation hazards.
Said OPSS Chief Executive Graham Russell:
Fancy dress can be an enjoyable part of Halloween, but our tests show many costumes for sale, particularly those online, pose serious risks to young children. Please take extra care before you buy.
Tests conducted June 2024
| Standards tested against | Number of items tested r | Pass r | Fail r | Inconclusive r |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BS EN 71-2: 2020 – Flammability of toys | 128 | 98 | 28 | 2 |
| BS EN 14682:2014 – Safety of children’s clothing. Cords and drawstrings on children’s clothing | 74 | 13 | 61 | 0 |
| Labelling | 128 | 30 | 98 | 0 |
(Corrections to numbers are shown by the addition of a ‘r’ in the relevant column heading, denoting that the figures presented in the column include corrected figures.)
Read guidance on the Toy (Safety) Regulations 2011.
Notes to editors
The Halloween costumes were tested as part of OPSS’s test purchasing programme, which aims to evaluate the compliance of products available to UK consumers from specific online marketplaces. The targeted products are those frequently appearing on recall and alert lists, and the EU Safety Gate system. Products are selected based on low price, poor reviews, and apparent low quality. Products are assessed for regulatory compliance through labelling checks, visual inspections, and laboratory testing in some cases. This targeted approach means the products tested are not necessarily representative of all products sold by online marketplaces, so the results should not be interpreted as a national estimate of the proportion of products that are non-compliant.
Following publication on 22 October 2024, some minor errors were identified with the number of products that had passed and failed against the different standards. The table has been corrected, and the article was updated on 7 November 2024. The headline figures of 128 products tested and more than 80% failed remain unchanged.