{"id":3806,"date":"2017-09-21T16:25:24","date_gmt":"2017-09-21T15:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gpsj.co.uk\/?p=3806"},"modified":"2017-09-21T16:30:54","modified_gmt":"2017-09-21T15:30:54","slug":"ctsi-director-of-policy-calls-for-independent-national-trading-standards-regime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gpsj.co.uk\/?p=3806","title":{"rendered":"CTSI Director of Policy calls for independent national trading standards regime"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Adam Scorer<\/p><\/div>\n

Reporter: Stuart Littleford<\/p>\n

Director of Policy at the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI), Adam Scorer, repeated its call for an independent, national trading standards regime on BBC News today. This follows demands from Which? on manufactures to \u2018do the right thing\u2019 and stop producing plastic-backed cold-appliances from non-flame retardant materials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a situation where the product safety responsibility is split between 200 local authorities, cash-strapped doesn\u2019t cover it\u201d, Scorer told the BBC. \u201cTrading Standards have 260 pieces of legislation that their officers need to enforce.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scorer reiterated CTSI\u2019s call for an independent and national board for Trading Standards enforcement: \u201cWe need a product safety regime across the UK that\u2019s able to make sure that unsafe products don\u2019t get into people\u2019s homes. That requires a national skilled body of trading standards professionals with the expertise, not within local authorities, in order that we have a product safety regime that\u2019s fit for purpose and lives up to its name.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe have to learn from tragic events, like Grenfell. It\u2019s not that the standards are necessarily being breached, it\u2019s that we need stronger standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following a recent review of cold-appliance safety, Which? labelled the current standards as \u2018deficient and inadequate\u2019. Though unlikely to be the cause of house fires, non-flame retardant materials increase the risks of accelerating the spread of fires. While most cold appliances meet British standards, the materials used are not sufficiently safe, and could put lives at risk.<\/p>\n

CTSI Lead Officer for Consumer and Product Safety, Christine Heemskerk, who is currently in Prague addressing the ANEC and various standards bodies on progressing safety changes, said she strongly supported the consumer champion\u2019s call.<\/p>\n

Heemskerk added: \u201cTo protect consumers, we must ensure that standards are relevant and reviewed frequently to improve safety. While the standards for testing traditional products such as fridges and freezers are suitable, factors such as increasing cost of raw materials and changes in design can cause new safety issues to emerge that the standard no longer covers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow CTSI Lead Officer, Mark Gardiner, also added his support to the Which?\u2019 statement, praising the renewed interest in the issue. He said: \u201cit can only increase the pressure on manufacturers to exceed to current standard, and on standards makers to address this issue in the harmonised standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

CTSI first\u00a0called on governments<\/a>\u00a0in July to drastically re-evaluate the way Trading Standards and product safety is regulated and funded. In February, the UK Government received a report urging it to “examine how market surveillance of consumer goods should be organised and funded the lack of nationally coordinated market surveillance”.<\/p>\n

CTSI calls on governments to:<\/p>\n