The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is one of the UK’s MSAs, allocating resources to undertake both reactive and proactive market surveillance. They uphold and enforce legal safety requirements (including risks to health) for most of the products used at work, monitoring safety and confirming the conformity of products against product supply law.
Investigations can also fall within HSE’s remit. This happens when issues are raised by users or other regulators as a result of HSE’s ongoing workplace inspection activities.
Other MSAs in the UK
The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), created in January 2018, is responsible for the regulation of most consumer goods, excluding food, medicines, and vehicles.
Sitting within the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), it provides the regulatory and market surveillance infrastructure for businesses that sell products on the UK market. Responsible for product safety and standards, the OPSS applies regulation across a product’s lifecycle (design, accreditation, manufacture, labelling, supply, end use and safe disposal). Their policy responsibilities cover product safety, legal weights and measures, standards, accreditation, hallmarking, and Primary Authority.
The OPSS also enforces regulations for other government departments alongside the DBT. These include:
- Construction products – Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
- Energy Standards – Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero.
- Environmental Regulation – Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
- Consumer Connectable Product Security – Department of Science, Innovation and Technology.
Trading Standards are another MSA who are more locally based and well-known. They mainly deal with the safety of consumer products, although they take the lead role in preference to HSE with regard to some workplace products.
Other products that MSAs work to protect everyone from are:
- Food products, regulated by the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
- Medicines, regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
- Vehicles, regulated by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA).
Where appropriate, the HSE works in coordination with other MSAs and UK border control authorities, alongside other stakeholders such as industry bodies, unions. This may be in reaction to issues arising from incidents and information received, as well as from following proactive work programmes.
A case study
The British Safety Industry Federation (BSIF) has warned of a recent product recall for safety shoes by the OPSS, which were on sale through TikTok. This recall highlights the alarming availability of substandard personal protective equipment (PPE) in the UK market.
All employers and individual users should have confidence that PPE, when described as protective, genuinely meets recognised standards, and offers the protections described.
The recalled product, listed on TikTok Shop under multiple descriptors, advertised protections whilst failing to meet essential safety requirements. The OPSS regard the product as, “presenting a serious risk of injury because there is no evidence it has undergone conformity assessment as PPE, it has no UKCA nor CE markings and has not met requirements as set out in the Regulation (EU) 2016 / 425 on Personal Protective Equipment or the Personal Protective Equipment (Enforcement) Regulations 2018.”
The item has since been removed from TikTok following enforcement action by the OPSS.
There are concerns that similar, if not identical, footwear remains on sale on similar platforms. Many are purchased by unsuspecting individuals who have been given a budget to buy their own PPE, but do not fully understand the regulatory or certification requirements that surround safety products. It is suspected that many of these products are being bought directly by workers, including limb (b) workers, who are not direct employees, but for whom employers still have a legal duty to provide PPE under recent updates to the PPE Regulations.
Our advice is to always understand the reason(s) that PPE is being purchased and then make sure that the standard of the PPE meets that need, as well as the regulatory safety requirements.
Some examples of things to consider when it comes to PPE:
- Is high-viz reflective enough?
- Do safety goggles, masks, gloves and other items of safety apparel provide sufficient protection against the intended hazards?
- Are shoes nonslip? Do they provide the needed protection against crushing and/or cutting hazards?
Remember, PPE should be used as a last resort method to ensure the safety and health of the person wearing it.
To avoid accidents, causing harm and facing prosecution,
ensure your business complies with Health and Safety law in 2025, by
- Conducting risk assessments as and when required (prior to undertaking activities).
- Providing training regarding the risks involved and how to manage them.
- Supervising risk management, as necessary, until competence is demonstrated.
- Formally reviewing risk assessments and associated safe systems of work regularly.
- Updating training provided (toolbox talks, in-house or external formal training).
- Keeping/updating records of all the above processes.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need any help with the matters raised in this newsletter, or any other H&S query.