Product Safety (Hansard, 11 March 2004)

§ Mr. Carmichael
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many deaths were caused by products classified by her Department as unsafe in each of the last 10 years. [159978]

§ Mr. Sutcliffe
This information is not available.

§ Mr. Carmichael
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) how many products were banned from sale on safety grounds in each of the last 10 years; [159979]
(2) how many of the products banned from sale on safety grounds were recalled by the manufacturer in each of the last 10 years. [159980]

§ Mr. Sutcliffe
In 1996 the Department made emergency regulations under section 11(5) of the Consumer Protection Act 1987 to ban the supply of certain fireworks to the general public. This ban was carried forward in permanent regulations-The Fireworks (Safety) Regulations 1997—which banned the sale of a range of fireworks.
In 2003 the Department issued prohibition Notices under the 1987 Act against six suppliers of Yo Balls because the posed a risk of strangulation to children.
In neither case were the affected products recalled by their manufacturers. However, the publicity surrounding the bans will have alerted consumers to the dangers presented by these products.

§ Mr. Carmichael
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what representations she has received from(a) consumers organisations and(b) industry on the EU Directive on General Product Safety; [159981]
(2) for what reason the Government has not yet implemented the EU Directive on General Product Safety; and if she will make a statement. [159982]

§ Mr. Sutcliffe
The Department invited views from consumer organisations, industry and the enforcement community on a number of policy issues concerning transposition of the revised General Product Safety Directive in an initial public consultation during the period from November 2001 to March 2002. A copy of the consultation document and a summary of the responses is available on the Department's website at www. dti.gov.uk/ccp/archive/pdf/gpsdcon.pdf and www.dti. gov.uk/ccp/archive/pdf/gpsdsumrn.pdf respectively.
The consultation identified differing views on key issues in complex policy areas including how to handle mandatory product recall, on which we have held a number of stakeholder meetings. We want to ensure that the system we employ for recalling products will have the confidence of all parties and be effective in providing better protection for consumers from dangerous products.