Guidance

National regulation: enforcement services

How the Office for Product Safety and Standards contributes to the national regulatory landscape.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) provides enforcement services for a range of goods-based and standards-based regulations. OPSS is the policy owner for some of these regulations but also provides services on behalf of government departments including DBT, Defra and DfT.

We are working towards providing a regulatory environment in which businesses have the confidence to invest and grow and citizens and communities are properly protected. We do this by taking a risk-based and proportionate approach to our enforcement activities and by operating under the The Regulators’ Code.

What we enforce

OPSS is the national regulator for consumer product safety (other than in relation to vehicles, medicines and food), working with local authorities, other market surveillance authorities and border control authorities.

Find out more about how to comply with product safety law.

Guidance on complying with the following areas of legislation can be found via these links:

Guidance for businesses we regulate

These documents:

  • define what you can expect from us
  • set out our approach to addressing non-compliance and potential product safety risks
  • detail the specific enforcement actions available to us under certain regulations
  • explain how you can complain or comment about our service
  • clarify your statutory and non-statutory rights to challenge or appeal our regulatory actions or decisions

OPSS enforcement: service standards

OPSS enforcement: enforcement policy

OPSS enforcement: guidance on enforcement actions and associated rights

OPSS: complaints policy

OPSS enforcement: challenges and appeals guidance

Non-qualifying regulatory provisions

The Regulatory Policy Committee has confirmed that none of the measures or activities of OPSS presented in the following summaries should be considered as qualifying regulatory provisions for the purposes of the Business Impact Target.

Summary of non-qualifying regulatory provisions 17 December 2021 to 16 December 2022 (PDF, 169 KB, 3 pages)

Summary of non-qualifying regulatory provisions 17 December 2020 to 16 December 2021 (PDF, 132 KB, 4 pages)

Summary of non-qualifying regulatory provisions 13 December 2019 to 16 December 2020 (PDF, 171 KB, 3 pages)

Summary of non-qualifying regulatory provisions 21 June 2019 to 12 December 2019 (PDF, 153 KB, 3 pages)

Summary of non-qualifying regulatory provisions 21 June 2018 to 20 June 2019 (PDF, 190 KB, 3 pages)

Summary of non-qualifying regulatory provisions 8 June 2017 to 20 June 2018 (PDF, 188 KB, 3 pages)

Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about compliance or wish to contact us regarding suspected non-compliance please email OPSS.enquiries@businessandtrade.gov.uk.

Alternatively you can contact our helpdesk on 0121 345 1201.

Or in writing to:

Office for Product Safety and Standards
4th Floor Cannon House
18 The Priory Queensway
Birmingham
B4 6BS
United Kingdom

Updates to this page

Published 20 September 2016
Last updated 6 January 2023 + show all updates
  1. Summary of non-qualifying regulatory provisions under the Business Impact Target for 17 December 2021 to 16 December 2022 added.

  2. Summary of non-qualifying regulatory provisions under the Business Impact Target for 17 December 2020 to 16 December 2021 added.

  3. Enforcement services summary leaflet added.

  4. Four documents added on Regulatory Delivery's approach to business regulation: our service standards, enforcement policy, complaints policy, and challenges and appeals guidance.

  5. First published.

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