Our purpose is to make regulation work, to protect people and enable businesses to understand their obligations.
The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) delivers consumer protection and to support business confidence, productivity and growth. We regulate a wide range of products with a focus on their safety and integrity. We work with local, national and international regulators, with consumer representatives and with businesses to deliver effective protections and to support compliance.
Our mission is to be a trusted product regulator for the UK. This means protecting people and places, enabling business to thrive and empowering consumers to make good choices. We will be a leader of good regulatory practice and a champion of local regulation.
OPSS is:
* the national regulator for all consumer products, except for food, vehicles, drugs and medical devices.
* the national regulator for legal metrology, ensuring weighing and measuring instruments are accurate and reliable.
We also:
* lead Government policy on product safety, metrology, hallmarking and market surveillance, and are responsible for product safety at our borders.
* lead standards and accreditation policy across Government, working with the British Standards Institution and the United Kingdom Accreditation Service, providing benchmarks for the manufacture of safe products and assuring the quality of testing, calibration and certification services.
* sponsor the British Hallmarking Council.
OPSS is the UK Government’s enforcement authority for a range of goods-based and standards-based regulations.
Internationally, OPSS works with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and with the Department for International Development to support opportunities for UK trade.
Consumers: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/consumer-product-safety-advice-for-staying-safe
Businesses: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/business-regulation
Regulators: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/regulators-professional-guidance-and-tools