The Government has launched a consultation on major plans to reform the UK’s product safety framework.

The need to update the existing product safety framework to reflect the modern world has been repeatedly emphasised by the Government. We saw it in its response to the Product Safety Review in late 2024, and in the passage of the Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025, which confers broad powers on the Secretary of State to introduce regulations so as to “address modern day safety issues” and respond to “new product risks and opportunities to enable the UK to keep pace with technological advances”.

While those powers are already being used to update technical legislation, the Government recognises that the only way to deliver “a significant step-change that will be felt by businesses and consumers alike” is to undertake a substantial overhaul of the ‘core product safety framework’, which is over 20 years old.

Therefore, it has published a consultation on plans for a “new, modernised and enhanced framework” that reflects modern products and supply chains, gives people confidence that what they buy will be safe, and is equipped to address products of the future.

Consistent with this root-and-branch approach, the consultation addresses foundational matters such as what products should be covered, how a safe product should be defined, and how the safety of a product can be assessed. It also proposes updates on how businesses should provide more detailed product information (both digitally and physically) to consumers, and particular obligations on those who sell online.

E-commerce is a theme that emerges throughout the consultation. To ensure that consumers are adequately protected, the Government proposes to distinguish between ‘producers’, ‘online suppliers’ and ‘online marketplaces’, placing obligations on each to “proactively prevent the supply of dangerous products, tailored to their role in the supply chain”. For example, a new duty will be introduced requiring online marketplaces to “practice due diligence to identify and take action against ‘bad actors’, such as those that repeatedly sell dangerous products or sellers who do not comply with other obligations in product safety legislation”.

Finally, the consultation addresses how the Government should prepare for the products of the future, inviting views on how the UK can develop a proportionate approach to address the challenges posed by AI-enabled products while supporting innovation.

The consultation closes on 23 June 2026 and can be found here.