Corporate report

OPSS Delivery Report 2023-2024: Statistical Annex

Published 19 November 2024

November 2024

Purpose

This Annex presents further information on the statistics and metrics used in the OPSS Delivery Report 2023 to 2024. It explains the background to the statistics including how the data is collected, any caveats to using the data and any references to published documents.

Product Safety Database (PSD)

The UK Product Safety Database (PSD) is the notification system used by local authority trading standards (environmental health in Northern Ireland), certain national regulators and Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) enforcement teams to notify unsafe and non-compliant products to the Secretary of State, as required by product safety legislation. ^{[footnote 1]}

Read the PSD report for 2023 to 2024 and accompanying methodology and quality report.

In April 2022, OPSS launched a new safety alerts, reports and recalls service to make searchable information regarding unsafe products and recalls more accessible to business and the public. It is primarily driven by PSD notifications. During 2023 to 2024, 2,424 records were added to the PSD and 2,258 of these were product safety notifications and 688 were subsequently published on the new system as they involved higher risk notifications or product specific recalls and corrective actions.

Enquiry Case Management System (ECMS)

ECMS is an internal digital system used by OPSS to record case management activities, replacing multiple legacy systems to ensure consistency between teams and projects. It went live in September 2022, with additional capabilities and refinements being added regularly. It covers investigations, enquiries, requests for advice and checks on compliance that do not necessarily identify non-compliance.

The system implements a case structure but allows linking of related cases, products or business entities, and allows regulators to track and manage caseloads, whilst retaining vital information which supports collaboration with key partners and manages record keeping. Each case can be for single or multiple products, entire classes of products, and can concern referrals into or out of OPSS, enforcement or advisory action, or product testing and evidence management. ECMS has been designed to provide better data and ease of operation, and for example allows staff to seamlessly attach emails or information to case records supporting efficient working whilst providing a robust evidence trail. This coupled with developments of the ECMS for disclosure purposes will significantly enhance the case management system to support investigations.

Lead officers are responsible for the quality and accuracy of the data they enter. Entries are regularly updated with progress and additional information relevant to the case, allowing users to track actions taken.

The following information in the delivery report was sourced from ECMS:

• Ecodesign and energy labelling
• Legal metrology enforcement
• Local authority engagement
• Timber regulations compliance
• Batteries placing on the market (BPoM)
• Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)
• Access and benefit sharing (ABS)
• Gas and electricity metering
• Electric vehicles and fuel labelling
• Heat networks
• Construction products
• Restrictions on certain hazardous substances (RoHS)

Distributor Takeback

According to The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013, distributors (typically retailers) of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) have two options:

• provide in-store take-back of waste electrical equipment on a one-for-one, like-for-like basis, or
• enrol in the Distributor Takeback Scheme (DTS)

Valpak Retail WEEE Services manages the Distributor Takeback Scheme (DTS), which grants members an exemption from the obligation to accept in-store returns of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) when customers buy a new, equivalent item of electrical or electronic equipment (EEE).

Figures from this section were taken from the Phase 6 Distributor Takeback Scheme (DTS) Database, which is a real-time datasheet that summarises the current status of businesses that were not registered for Phase 6 DTS.

OPSS conducted checks to verify the trading status of these businesses and issued warning and follow-up letters as necessary. Compliance efforts included businesses offering their own take-back solutions or joining the DTS. Additionally, OPSS undertook compliance visits to ensure adherence to regulations. Records of letters sent, and visits carried out are maintained in internal records. Phase 6 of the scheme ran from 1 January 2022 until 31 December 2023.

National Packaging Waste Database (NPWD)

Vehicle and automotive and industrial battery producers must register with OPSS within 28 days of first placing batteries on the UK market. This is done via the NPWD, a database maintained by the Environment Agency.

Access the NPWD – Registered users only, Environment Agency website.

Incident Management Team (IMT) allegations data

OPSS provides national incident response capability on nationally significant, novel, or contentious product regulation issues. The incident management team hold data to track all allegations that come in to supplement the information on the PSD.

Lead officers are responsible for the quality and accuracy of the data they enter. Entries are updated with progress updates and additional information relevant to the allegation to allow users to track how cases are escalated and actions taken.

Status indicators are used to provide a broad indication of the latest position with the specific allegation identified, including marking it as resolved when the issue has been addressed.

Table 1: Allegations to OPSS Incident Management Team, 2023 to 2024

Type	Number
Consumer products	442
Construction products	59
National incident response	1

Source: OPSS IMT internal systems

Serious Undesirable Effect notifications

A ‘serious undesirable effect’ (SUE) is one in which the normal or reasonably foreseeable use of a cosmetic results in temporary or permanent functional incapacity, disability, hospitalisation, congenital anomalies or an immediate vital risk or death. Responsible persons and distributors are required to report SUEs resulting from the use of cosmetics to OPSS via email using the SUEs form. These forms are then collated by operational teams.

Access the SUEs form.

In 2023 to 2024, 90 SUE notifications were reported to OPSS, logged and triaged.

Ecodesign and energy labelling

Consumers rely on products to comply with applicable regulations and to be accurately labelled in terms of energy usage. Throughout the year, efforts concentrated on various product types, targeting areas with previous non-compliance and addressing industry concerns.

Product visual examinations and technical file assessments were conducted across various products. Technical file assessments involve reviewing the documentation that manufacturers must provide to demonstrate that their products meet regulatory requirements. Future projects will review businesses’ actions to ensure compliance.

Figures in this section are mainly recorded on the Enquiry Case Management System (ECMS). The technical file assessments undertaken are recorded in internal spreadsheets relating to each product type.

Border programme data

Ports and borders consignment check data are collected from local authority trading standards officers by OPSS’ Border Profiling Unit using an excel spreadsheet. A reminder email is sent out each month, requesting the data for interventions carried out previously, taking into account the time lag to enable results to be collected. For example, a reminder email sent in April will request February interventions data. Updates to data from previous months are encouraged. The data is commercially sensitive and personal (as the names/addresses of sellers etc can include private addresses).

The data is cleaned and collated by OPSS statisticians and used to produce a quarterly dashboard.

Local authorities may perform more than one check on a consignment if it contains different products and they usually only review a sample of goods in each consignment check.

Some local authorities only do desktop tests (not physical examinations). This means they will only find non-compliant products, not unsafe ones.

Table 2: Enforcement activity at ports and borders, 2023 to 2024, by quarter

Quarter	Number of goods covered by consignment checks	Number of unsafe or non-compliant goods refused entry to the UK	Percentage refused entry
Q1 (April-June 2023)	3,205,742	528,639	16%
Q2 (July-September 2023)	3,607,249	897,435	25%
Q3 (October-December 2023)	4,362,889	680,010	16%
Q4 (January-March 2024)	4,313,029	304,597	7%
Total (2023-24)	15,488,909	2,410,681	16%

Source: OPSS Ports and borders data collection

Notes

1. Usually local authorities only review a sample of goods in each consignment check.
2. Excludes consignments where the results of checks are pending or unknown.
3. Some local authorities only do desktop tests (not physical examinations). This means they will only find non-compliant products, not unsafe ones.
4. The number of goods covered by checks can vary from quarter to quarter depending on the consignments checked.

Value of markets analysis

The Economics team in OPSS did some work to estimate the value of the markets OPSS regulates.

The value of markets that OPSS regulates for 2023 is £490bn (with low estimates of £288bn and high estimates of £693bn). This is an estimated figure using Office for National Statistics ^{[footnote 2]} (ONS) business size and activity data, and approximations of manufacturing and retail businesses that OPSS regulate. OPSS also has enforcement activity for construction products (estimated value of £96bn), hallmark jewellery (estimated revenues of £9.5bn) and metered heat and energy (estimated sales value of £59.8bn on electricity and £46.8bn on gas). ^{[footnote 3] [footnote 4]}

Value of OPSS markets / construction products value

To estimate the value of OPSS regulated markets we have utilised ONS Business Size and Activity Turnover Data (2023). ^{[footnote 2]} This dataset groups UK VAT-paying businesses by their business activity into standard industrial classification (SIC) codes. ONS SIC codes were mapped to ~30 different regulations, creating a ‘business populations’ list. These were further mapped to OPSS regulations by OPSS policy experts. ONS provides their business turnover data in bands. Instead of providing turnover at the individual business level, they group a business’ annual turnover into ranges. As the distribution of businesses within a range is unknown, we cannot precisely provide the total turnover for all businesses. The central estimate is the total of all OPSS SIC codes turnover using the midpoint of each band. High and low estimates take the lowest and highest band for each respectively. The final band (£50,000+) uses £50,000 turnover for all scenarios.

Hallmarked jewellery / metered heat networks

British Hallmarking Council (BHC) research estimates the UK jewellery industry generated annual revenue. Research from DESNZ (The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero) estimates household spending on gas and electricity was £46.8bn and £57.9bn respectively in 2022. ^{[footnote 3]} As these are estimated using a different methodology, they should not be combined with the OPSS market / construction product figures.

Caveats:

a. The figures provided use turnover as a proxy for market value, however these two figures are not the same.

b. Although ONS provides detail of what business activities falls into each SIC code group, it is not granular, meaning matching the SIC code description to the regulations has limited accuracy.

c. Figures from external sources have been used as publicly available data but have not been analysed at the same level of scrutiny as that from ONS.

d. For the estimated total market value for metered electricity, electricity that is used in public lighting and in the transport sector have been removed, as a significant (unknown) portion of electricity used for these two sectors are unmetered.

OPSS consumer surveys

These trackers seek to build on a body of existing research and evidence in this area, including the Consumer Attitudes to Product Safety study. They aim to benchmark and measure various key objectives of OPSS as well as filling evidence gaps for various policy topics.

To support these objectives, OPSS commissioned YouGov to understand and monitor consumers’ awareness and attitudes of product safety, their attitudes towards the product safety regulatory system, and understanding of different organisations concerned with product safety.

The study represents one of the largest of its type and provides invaluable insight into thousands of experiences of how people perceive the safety of products and handle any safety issues they face.

The findings are based on a large-scale representative sample of 10,216 people from across the United Kingdom (UK) collected through online research methods. Fieldwork was carried out between 16 June and 3 July 2023. A supporting survey of 252 people who are very low or non-internet users was conducted via telephone between 29 June and 19 July 2023.

Where appropriate, comparisons have been made with survey data from previous waves. Not all sections or questions are asked in every survey. The technical report contains details of wave-on-wave questionnaire design and section inclusion.

The sixth wave of the tracking report includes an exploration of key topical policy areas including online purchases, personal light electric vehicles, night wear, and metrology.

After the close of the online survey, 4 text-based online focus groups were conducted with survey participants. Participants had a mix of e-bike or e-scooter ownership, and the final group was conducted with those who experienced issues with their e-bikes or e-scooters.

The survey included a mix of age, social grade, genders, ethnicities, and locations. There were between 8-10 participants per group, each group lasted 90 minutes. Participants were asked to respond to an open-ended question as part of the recruitment criteria to ensure that participants were able to communicate effectively enough to participate in text-based research. Participants were incentivised via retail vouchers, in line with the MRS Code of Conduct.

Read the OPSS product safety and consumers Wave 6 report.

Product safety and industry research

The Product Safety and Industry research plays an important part in how OPSS measures trends in relation to industry awareness, attitudes and behaviours relating to product safety. This research series was introduced to complement the OPSS consumer attitudes to product safety research series.

The first wave fieldwork began in December 2019, Wave 2 began in June 2022 and Wave 3 is currently in the early fieldwork stages.

Wave 2 is the latest published in this industry research series and like Wave 1 was mixed-method research comprising of a qualitative and quantitative research strand. The quantitative research strand consisted of a Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) survey with 1,000 businesses, covering a broad range of sectors. Survey fieldwork ran between June and July 2022. The qualitative research encompassed 35 depth interviews with a range of organisations between September and October 2022. Comparisons to the first wave of fieldwork are made throughout this report where relevant.

The survey was designed to be representative of UK-based manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers, retailers, repairers and installers. The technical report contains details of survey design and qualitative phase approaches with details of questionnaire and topic guide development and analysis details. It also includes details of wave-on-wave questionnaire design such as ensuring sampling methods were consistent with the previous wave.

Section 70 Weights and Measures (Legal Metrology)

Under Section 70 of the Weights and Measures Act 1985, Local Weights and Measures Authorities (LWMAs) in Great Britain have a statutory duty to report to the Secretary of State for Business and Trade the level of local Weights and Measures enforcement work conducted over a twelve-month period.

Read the Section 70 report for 2023-2024 and accompanying methodology and quality report.

Fires in e-bikes and e-scooters

Fires in e-bikes and e-scooters report provides an overview of the fires involving e-scooters and e-bikes reported to OPSS. It examines data from the Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) across the UK, with a focus on product-related fires associated with lithium-ion battery risks. The data is submitted on a voluntary basis using a product related fire notification (PFN) form. Additionally, London Fire Brigade provides further information directly to OPSS. The report covers incidents from 2022 and 2023, with some data from 2017 and 2021.

Read the Fires in e-bikes and e-scooters – 2022 and 2023 report.

Further details

The Office for Product Safety and Standards is part of the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). Our purpose is to make regulation work, so that it protects people and enables businesses to understand their obligations.

This publication was produced by the Data Analysis and Evidence Strategy Team. If you have any enquiries about the content please contact OPSSAnalysis@businessandtrade.gov.uk.

Footnotes

1. General Product Safety Regulations 2005 (GPSR), Regulation on Accreditation and Market Surveillance (RAMS), and Market Surveillance and Compliance of Products Regulation 2019/1020. ↩

2. UK business: activity, size and location, 2023 edition, table 9 – ONS website ↩ ↩²

3. Digest of energy statistics (DUKES): energy, DUKES table 1.3 ↩ ↩²

4. As these additional figures have different methodologies, the figures given should not be combined into one total. ↩