The Government published the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill on 5 September 2024, a piece of legislation expected to cover the safety of products sold through online marketplaces and the regulation of goods that pose risks to consumer health and safety, including e-bikes, e-scooters and their batteries1.
The consumer safety charity Electrical Safety First welcomed the publication, saying it had been calling for government action on both issues1. Its "Don't Be Electricked" campaign calls for online marketplaces to be legally defined and held accountable for the safety of products sold on their platforms, so that consumers are as protected shopping online as they are on the high street1.
The charity's position rests partly on its own testing. On 22 August 2024 it published findings from its most recent investigation into online marketplaces, which found that 96% of products it had purchased from sites including Temu, Amazon and eBay failed safety tests1. On batteries, it says e-bike and e-scooter fires have increased fourfold since 2020, resulting in financial losses, homelessness, hospitalisations and deaths1. It is campaigning for measures such as third-party certification to end manufacturers being able to self-declare their batteries are safe, arguing that e-bikes, e-scooters and their batteries should be classified as high-risk in the same way as heavy machinery and fireworks1. The campaign has over 85 national organisations backing it, including Brompton, Which? and the National Fire Chiefs Council1.
Lesley Rudd, chief executive of Electrical Safety First, said:
"We welcome the Government's publication of the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill. UK consumers are at risk from the never-ending tide of dangerous electricals sold via online marketplaces and this has to stop."
The charity also warned that supporting legislation must be effective against the "whack-a-mole" effect of banned third-party sellers re-emerging1. The Bill's own text, its timetable and the detail of any supporting regulations have not been reported in the material available1.
Why it matters for households
Much of the electrical equipment a household buys, from chargers and outdoor lighting to e-bike batteries, now arrives through online marketplaces rather than shops on the high street. The charity's testing suggests that a large share of such purchases fail safety tests, and that the resulting failures can lead to fire, injury and loss of a home1. For a household, the practical link between product safety rules and electrical safety regulation is direct: the standards a product meets, and who checks them, determine the risk carried into a home where the item is charged, stored and used.
Batteries are the sharper edge of this. A fire that starts in a battery being charged in a hallway or a flat can make a home uninhabitable, and the charity links the rise in e-bike and e-scooter fires to financial losses and homelessness as well as hospitalisations and deaths1. Its argument that batteries should require third-party certification, rather than self-declaration by manufacturers, is a claim about who carries the burden of proving a product is safe before it reaches a household1. The Bill's scope also touches the wider framework of gas safety regulation only insofar as product rules and safety rules sit alongside each other; nothing in the material connects the Bill to gas appliances1.
What happens next
The Bill was published on 5 September 20241. Electrical Safety First says the detail of the Bill and its supporting regulations will determine whether it closes loopholes, and that the legislation must be robust enough to stop bad operators risking consumers' lives1. No dates for further stages, consultation or commencement have been reported1.