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Progress on product safety – UK Government publishes recommendations of its Working Group

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The tragic Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June brings into sharp focus the importance of having an effective product safety system in place, with clear guidance for manufacturers, high levels of engagement from consumers and sufficient resource to help and support regulatory authorities.

Prior to this event, the UK Government was already reviewing the UK’s product safety and recall system.  On 19 July, it published the recommendations of its Working Group on Product Recalls and Safety (the “Report“). The Working Group was set up in October 2016 (with two Partners from Baker McKenzie, John Leadley and Kate Corby, as members) to develop options to improve the system of product recalls and safety, building on the review carried out by Lynn Faulds Wood.

The recommendations contained in the Report represent a step forward in working towards improving the effectiveness of the product safety and recall system.  The recommendations include the following points.

  1. Code of Practice – One of the key recommendations made by the Working Group is to work with the British Standards Institute (“BSI“) to create a Code of Practice for businesses and regulators on best practice for corrective action. This process is already underway. The Code is expected to include, for example, guidance on when to make a notification, how to carry out a risk assessment and how Primary Authority partnerships should work.
  2. Improving consumer engagement– An important way of improving the effectiveness of the product recall system is to increase the response rate to recalls. The Working Group therefore recommended encouraging consumers to register appliances and other consumer goods. For the same reason, the Government recently launched a new webpage with collated information about which white goods, food, medicines, medical devices, motor vehicles etc have recently been recalled.
  3. Resource for regulatory authorities – The Working Group recommended setting up a central scientific and technical resource to help support effective decision making, e.g. when assessing a complex risk assessment. One idea proposed by the Working Group is for the UK Government BEIS officials to act in a “supporting regulator” role for Primary Authorities.
  4. Sharing information  – Another recommendation of the Working Group is to establish systematic and sustainable ways to capture and share data and intelligence (e.g. there are ad hoc arrangements in place for sharing information between the Fire Service and Trading Standards but no direct link between their electronic information sharing systems).

Next steps

The Working Group will continue working with the Government on finalising and implementing its plans to improve the recall system, and will consider a number of additional issues following the Grenfell fire (as requested by Margot James MP).

The Government is expected to respond to the Working Group’s recommendations in Autumn 2017.

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Kate Corby is a partner in Baker McKenzie’s Dispute Resolution team in London. Kate has over two decades' experience of representing clients in complex litigation and arbitration, with a focus on arbitration of construction, engineering and infrastructure related disputes. She has handled arbitrations under the rules of all of the major arbitral institutions and ad hoc, seated in London and around the world and under a wide range of governing laws. Kate also has significant experience in advising on product liability, safety and regulatory compliance. Kate co-leads the firm's Industrials, Manufacturing and Transportation Industry Group in EMEA.
Kate is also well-known for her inclusion, diversity & equity work, particularly for organising the London chapter of #Arbitration Lunch Match, sitting on the Global Executive Committee of the Equal Representation of Experts Pledge, and she is co-chair of the London office's BakerWomen Affinity Group.
Kate is ranked as a Leading Individual in Legal 500 UK in both her practice areas in which she is described as “hugely impressive, extremely bright and on-the-ball, and has a deep understanding of the client’s needs and what really matters on the case. She is simply brilliant.” Kate is also individually ranked by Chambers, which notes she has “excellent commercial awareness and vision” and “provides excellent industry insight and customer service.” Kate is also recognised in Who’s Who Legal.

Author

Jo is a senior associate in Baker McKenzie's Dispute Resolution team in London. Jo advises clients in a wide range of industries on complex commercial disputes and investigations. She also regularly provides specialist product safety and regulatory compliance advice and acts for clients in product liability disputes. One of Jo's other areas of specialism is advising clients on a wide range of regulatory, public and administrative law issues, including judicial review, consultations, freedom of information and public procurement. Jo's practice often involves drawing on crisis management experience to help clients protect their reputations and shareholder value when dealing with urgent, time pressured issues and/or intense public scrutiny. Jo was ranked as a Next Generation Lawyer in the Legal 500 Product liability: defendant category in 2017. Jo has participated in the UK Government's Working Group on product safety and recalls and has assisted with the development of the Government's training programme for Trading Standards Officers on the new UK Code of Practice for Product Recalls.

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