Research and analysis

Product Safety Testing Sampling Protocol Programme: April 2020 – March 2024

Published 9 April 2025

1) Summary

Under the 2023-24 programme:

• 695 products were tested, of which 580 (83%) products were found to be non-compliant against the legislation that they were assessed against.
• The most tested categories were cosmetics, toys, and electrical.

2) Introduction and methodology

This report is based on data collected by the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) through the Product Testing Sampling Protocol for the 2020-21 to 2023-24 programmes. These programmes have operated on an annual basis since 2018 with consistent data collection from 2020. OPSS provides grant funding to local authority (LA) operated test houses to give LAs within the UK access to funded assessment and testing of products for compliance with product safety legislation that is within OPSS’s remit. The scope of the programme and information about its operation are outlined in the Sampling Protocol, published each year on the Regulators’ Companion website. ^{[footnote 1]} The Sampling Protocol allows LAs to test purchase and assess the compliance of products that are placed on the market by businesses operating in their LA area. This programme provides LAs with cost-free access to scientific and technical expertise for product assessment and testing, supporting their regulatory activities. For items costing £75 or over, an application can be made to OPSS to fund the purchase costs, if a product costs less than £75, the LAs are responsible for covering the costs of test purchasing the product.

LA Trading Standards Officers (TSOs) in Great Britain and Environmental Health Officers in NI are advised to use a risk-based approach, exercising their professional judgement when deciding what products to test purchase and to what legislation they should be tested for compliance against.

The samples were submitted to one of seven laboratories for testing, as shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Laboratories testing samples between 2020-21 and 2023-24

Laboratory	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Aberdeen Scientific Services	5	4	13	6
Edinburgh Scientific Services	9	15	15	29
Gateshead Metrology Lab	36	25	61	27
Glasgow Scientific Services	43	156	46	62
Hampshire Scientific Services	61	48	143	157
Kent Scientific Services	105	240	124	313
Lancashire Scientific Services	75	110	75	101
Total	334	598	477	695

Source: OPSS data collection

After testing each product, the LA laboratory must send the test certificate to the LA TSO who submitted the sample. This allows the TSO to take appropriate follow-up action in line with their enforcement policy and the Regulators’ Code. According to the Sampling Protocol, OPSS requires that non-compliant test results, along with any follow-up enforcement actions, be entered into the OPSS Product Safety Database (PSD) ^{[footnote 2]} along with additional intelligence about the product.

LA TSOs can use these test certificates to initiate discussions with businesses they regulate regarding non-compliance issues identified. This can help businesses take appropriate actions to bring their products into compliance. Additionally, it allows the LA to consider whether enforcement action is necessary and proportionate. If needed, LA can require the removal of unsafe products from the market to protect consumers.

How the data can be used:

• Product compliance can be shown by individual product category.
• The rate of product compliance reflects the products assessed as part of this specific programme, not the overall level of compliance of all products.

How the data cannot be used:

• Product compliance rates cannot be used to estimate compliance at a national level due to the sampling methodology used. LAs tend to take into account local knowledge and intelligence to test products that have raised safety concerns. Therefore, the products tested cannot be considered a random sample
• Total volumes cannot be used to compare LA work as the volume of testing varies by LA and depends on the grant funding made available and the demand for testing.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) complies with the United Kingdom Statistics Authority (UKSA) Code of Practice for Official Statistics. This code outlines the revision policy for this release, and DBT will notify users of any revisions to the statistics through announcements on gov.uk.

3) Products tested

A wide range of products were tested, with the most commonly tested categories being cosmetics, toys, and electrical. This was followed by various consumer products, including nursery items and other household goods such as furniture.

Figure 1. Types of products tested, 2023-24

Source: OPSS data collection

Table 2. Types of products ^{[footnote 3]} tested under OPSS Sampling Protocol between 2020-21 and 2023-24

Product type	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Cosmetics	90	111	116	262
Toys	84	209	179	180
Electrical	84	165	106	106
General consumer products	25	16	18	58
Candles	3	31	26	47
Other products	33	23	19	27
Upholstered furniture	13	3	9	15
Clothing	0	25	3	0
Fireworks	2	15	1	0
Total	334	598	477	695

Source: OPSS data collection

Table 3 outlines the legislation under which products in the 2023-24 programme were tested against for compliance. The majority of these products were assessed under cosmetic or toys regulations, or multiple legislation types.

Table 3. Legislation applied, 2023-24

Legislation	Products	Percentage
EU Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 / Cosmetic Products Enforcement Regulations 2013	254	37
Toys Safety Directive 2009/48/EC / Toys Safety Regulations 2011	172	25
Multiple Legislations Apply	142	20
General Product Safety Regulations 2005	57	8
Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016 / Plugs and Sockets (Safety) Regulations 1994	30	4
Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988	19	3
Personal Protective Equipment 2016/425/EU / PPE (Enforcement) Regulations 2018	13	2
Food Imitations (Safety) Regulations 1989	3	0
Directive 2014/30/EU / Electromagnetic Compatibility Regulations 2016	2	0
Unknown	3	0
Total	695	100

Source: OPSS data collection

4) Test results

During 2023-24, 695 ^{[footnote 4]} products were tested, of which 580 (83%) products were found to be non-compliant with relevant legislation and standard requirements. ^{[footnote 5]} This was higher than the non-compliance found in 2020-21 (78% of the 334 products tested) and 2021-22 (76% of the 598 products tested), but lower than 2022-23 (86% of the 477 products tested).

Figure 2. Overall compliance results between 2020-21 and 2023-24

Source: OPSS data collection

Table 4. Overall compliance results of products tested under OPSS Sampling Protocol between 2020-21 and 2023-24

Compliance	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Compliant	73	141	69	111
Non-compliant	261	457	408	580

Source: OPSS data collection

The types of products selected for assessment are likely to have influenced compliance rates, as LAs use risk-based approaches in their regulatory work.

Figure 3. Nature of physical safety non-compliance, 2023-24

Source: OPSS data collection

Table 5. Nature of physical safety non-compliance of products tested under OPSS Sampling Protocol, 2023-24

Nature	2023-24
Physical and mechanical	182
Chemical / heavy metals	120
Electrical safety	63
Batteries and RoHS	32
Total	397

Source: OPSS data collection

A product can fail in multiple physical safety categories, such as physical and mechanical, electrical safety, batteries and RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances), chemical/heavy metal, pyrotechnics, and microbiology. The total number of failures across these categories was 397. ^{[footnote 6]}

Figure 4. Overall compliance results of the top five types of products tested, 2023-24

Source: OPSS data collection

Table 6. Overall compliance results of the top five types of products tested under OPSS Sampling Protocol, 2023-24

Product type	Compliant	Non-compliant	Total
Cosmetics	37	225	262
Toys	42	138	180
Electrical	11	92	103
General Consumer Products	5	53	58
Candles	10	37	47

Source: OPSS data collection

5) Corrective actions

Under the 2023-24 Sampling Protocol, data was required to be added to the PSD in instances where products posed a risk to consumer health and safety due to unsatisfactory test results or were found to be non-compliant.

Out of the 580 products that had a test certificate that identified non-compliance with the relevant regulatory requirements in 2023-24, 140 records were accurately matched on the PSD against a test laboratory report or other testing programme information. This equates to about 24% of the products that were expected to be recorded on the PSD under the programme.

Out of the 140 records that were accurately matched, 102 (73%) had at least one corrective action recorded. It is possible that this proportion may rise in the future due to time lags in reporting and recording of actions taken by LAs. A data cleansing exercise has been carried out to address this issue, and consideration is being given to how best to encourage timely and accurate data recording by LAs. Additionally, enhancements to the PSD and data extraction tools have been developed to help accurately match data records.

A wide range of actions were recorded on the PSD database by LAs, from recall of products to removal of listings by online marketplaces.

Figure 5. Corrective actions recorded on PSD, 2023-24

Source: OPSS data collection

Table 7. Corrective actions recorded on PSD, 2023-24

Corrective action	2023-24
Withdrawal of the product from the market	36
Recall of the product from end users	32
Seizure of goods	11
Temporary ban on the supply offer to supply and display of the product	11
Removal of the listing by the online marketplace	10
Product brought back into compliance	8
Destruction of the product	5
Product is no longer available for sale	3
Marking the product with appropriate warnings on the risks	1
Total	117

Source: OPSS data collection

The figures presented throughout this report are based on data analysed in February 2025 from the test laboratory reports and searches of the PSD for corrective actions. Any subsequent changes will not be reflected in this report.

More information on the PSD, and key findings, can be accessed at Product Safety Database annual reports.

Annex A – Legislation / products for testing

Products	Legislation tested for compliance with / associated Northern Ireland legislation where appropriate
Aerosols	Aerosol Dispensers Regulations 2009
Baby products	N-nitrosamines and N-nitrosatable Substances in Elastomer or Rubber Teats and Dummies (Safety) Regulations 1995
Consumer products	General Product Safety Regulations 2005
Cosmetic products	Cosmetic Products Enforcement Regulations 2013
Electrical Equipment	Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016 Plugs and Sockets (Safety) Regulations 1994
EMC	Electromagnetic Compatibility Regulations 2016
Fireworks and explosives	Pyrotechnic Articles (Safety) Regulations 2015
Food imitations	Food Imitations (Safety) Regulations 1989
Gas appliances	Gas Appliances (Enforcement) and Miscellaneous Amendments Regulations 2018
Machinery	Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008
Nightwear	The Nightwear (Safety) Regulations 1985
Oil heaters	Oil Heaters (Safety) Regulations 1977
PPE	Personal Protective Equipment (Enforcement) Regulations 2018
Pressure equipment	The Pressure Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016
Radio equipment	Radio Equipment Regulations 2017
Recreational craft	Recreational Craft Regulations 2017
Simple pressure vessels	Simple Pressure Vessels (Safety) Regulations 2016
Toys	Toys Safety Regulations 2011
Upholstered furniture	Furniture and Furnishings (Fire)(Safety) Regulations 1988

Footnotes

1. The website requires a login to access. ↩

2. The PSD is the notification system used by LA trading standards (environmental health in Northern Ireland), certain national regulators and OPSS enforcement teams to notify unsafe and non-compliant products to the Secretary of State, as required in product safety legislation. ↩

3. Other products include furniture, imitation food, mattress/bedding, nursery products, PPE, and stationery. For the latest year, however, the other products category comprises only nursery products. ↩

4. There were 4 products with unknown test results, which are excluded from figures discussing compliance outcomes. ↩

5. Legislation tested for compliance for products is listed in the Annex. ↩

6. This value represents all unsatisfactory test results obtained for tests conducted under the physical safety categories of batteries and RoHS, chemical / heavy metals, electrical safety, microbiology, and physical and mechanical. Labelling failures are not included, and the same product may yield multiple unsatisfactory results. ↩