The government is being urged to prevent consumer safety standards from slipping after Brexit, to avoid putting lives at risk from the growing number of potentially dangerous counterfeit electrical goods coming into the UK.
As the country edges closer to leaving the EU, the charity Electrical Safety First (ESF) wants the government to prioritise consumer safety and protection, regardless of the outcome of the Brexit negotiations, which could be the UK crashing out without a deal.
In a Brexit warning to be published this week, it says EU legislation surrounding safety standards on electrical goods, as well as consumer protection rights, must continue to be mirrored in UK law to ensure all electrical items are safe, so consumers are protected from the risk of substandard or counterfeit products.
Fake and unofficial electrical products can pose a much greater risk to life than items such as clothing, including from electrocution and fire. But any watering down or deregulation of existing standards could make the UK a magnet for cheap, substandard or counterfeit products, the ESF warns.
Research by the charity last year found that one in three UK consumers – about 18 million people – had mistakenly bought a counterfeit electrical item online. Products with safety flaws ranged from large household appliances such as tumble dryers, to kettles, phones and chargers, travel adaptors, hair straighteners and Kodi boxes, which allow users to stream content from apps and on-demand services.
Phil Buckle, the chief executive of the ESF, said: “No outcome from the ongoing EU-UK negotiations should be to the detriment of safety standards or consumer protection rights.
“The risks posed by substandard and counterfeit electrical products are a very real threat to consumers’ safety. Electricity is responsible for more than half of accidental domestic fires in England and any weakening of such standards could see this figure rise in the future.
“It is essential that enforcement bodies, which serve on the frontline in the fight against substandard and counterfeit electrical items, are adequately resourced to be as effective as possible as we depart from the European Union.”
According to the European commission, customs authorities across the EU seized an estimated 5m more counterfeit items in 2015 than the previous year – a 15% increase. China is the main source of counterfeit goods (41%), followed by Montenegro, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Benin.
After Brexit, the UK will need to assume greater responsibility surrounding enforcement and checks of imports to assess compliance with new customs controls, the ESF says. To do so effectively, enforcement bodies, such as trading standards, must be adequately funded to take on this increase in responsibility.
The most recent National Trading Standards Safety at Ports and Borders report identified 1.2m unsafe or non-compliant goods, which could have caused 500 fires, 1,000 major injuries and 2,000 minor injuries.
The consumer group Which? recently urged the government to use Brexit as an opportunity to set up a new national body, to be called the Consumer and Competition Authority, under the existing Competition and Markets Authority.
