House of Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee The safety of electrical goods in the UK: follow-up Second Report of Session 2019 Report, together with formal minutes relating to the report Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 29 October 2019 HC 156 Published on 1 November 2019 by authority of the House of Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Current membership Rachel Reeves MP (Labour, Leeds West) (Chair) Vernon Coaker MP (Labour, Gedling) Drew Hendry MP (Scottish National Party, Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey) Stephen Kerr MP (Conservative, Stirling) Peter Kyle MP (Labour, Hove) Mr Ian Liddell-Grainger MP (Conservative, Bridgwater and West Somerset) Sir Patrick McLoughlin MP (Conservative, Derbyshire Dales) Albert Owen MP (Labour, Ynys Môn) Mark Pawsey MP (Conservative, Rugby) Antoinette Sandbach MP (Independent, Eddisbury) Anna Turley MP (Labour (Co-op), Redcar) Powers The Committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the internet via www.parliament.uk. Publication Committee reports are published on the Committee’s website at www.parliament.uk/beis and in print by Order of the House. Evidence relating to this report is published on the inquiry publications page of the Committee’s website. Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Gary Calder (Media Officer), Ian Cruse Committee Specialist), Rebecca Davies (Clerk), Matthew Eaton (Committee Assistant), Alison Groves (Second Clerk), James McQuade (Senior Committee Assistant), Becky Mawhood and Ashleigh Morris (Committee Specialists). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 5777; the Committee’s email address is [email protected] The safety of electrical goods in the UK: follow-up 1 Contents Summary 3 1 Introduction 5 2 Whirlpool Tumble Dryers 8 Whirlpool’s Recall of Unmodified Tumble Dryers 8 The Safety of Whirlpool’s Modified Tumble Dryers and the role of OPSS 10 Continuing Monitoring of the Safety of Whirlpool’s Modification 14 Non-Disclosure Agreements and Product Safety 15 Whirlpool’s Attitude to Product Safety 17 Chapter 3: The Office for Product Safety and Standards 19 The Office for Product Safety and Standards 19 Second Hand and Online Electrical Goods 20 Plastic-backed Fridges 23 A Central Hub for Product Registration and Product Recalls 24 Indelible Marking of Electrical Products 26 A National Incident and Injury Database 26 OPSS: Independent and Robust? 27 Conclusions and recommendations 31 Formal minutes 36 Witnesses 37 Published written evidence 38 List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament 39 The safety of electrical goods in the UK: follow-up 3 Summary It is astonishing that four years after Whirlpool revealed defects in its tumble dryers there could still be up to 800,000 such machines in people’s homes. The programme to modify or replace such machines has been too slow, while doubts have now emerged over the safety of its modification to address this defect. Rather than dealing with this properly, Whirlpool have used Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) to silence customers and have sought to deflect the concerns of safety organisations, customers and this Committee. Its attitude to safety was further exposed with its improbable suggestion that the Grenfell fire, rather than originating in one of its fridges, as the Metropolitan Police found, was caused by a stray cigarette. The Whirlpool saga provided the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), set up in January 2018, with an ideal opportunity to stamp its authority on product safety and address a serious a major product safety issue. Sadly, OPSS have not delivered. It did not question Whirlpool’s over optimistic estimates of the remaining unmodified machines and could not even force Whirlpool to publish a full list of defective machines, which safety organisations and MPs had demanded. Instead it took our intervention. It also took nine months to produce a slim Review of Whirlpool’s modification. The Review did not speak to affected customers and failed to assure safety organisations because it did not publish a full risk assessment, because of concerns over commercial confidentiality. These failings question its authority, independence and transparency. In addition, OPSS has not yet delivered a fully operational and credible hub for consumers to register their electrical goods and access information on recalls, a comprehensive injury database or indelible marking for electrical goods. We called for these in January 2018, echoing the calls of safety organisations and campaigners. Without these improvements the product safety system in the UK is effectively running with one hand tied behind its back, unable to track trends, identify dangerous products or contact customers when they are identified. OPSS acknowledges that these are key issues to tackle but it must move out of scoping and consultation mode and act. Similarly, the OPSS has not made enough progress on the sale of recalled second -hand electrical goods or those that do not meet safety standards. The OPSS has been reactive, typically acting after prompts from safety organisations and campaigners when dangerous goods have been found online or on the high street. The OPSS must compel those who sell electrical goods, or facilitate their sale, to ensure that they are safe and not subject to a recall before they are placed for sale. Failure to make more progress in these areas and to tackle manufacturers such as Whirlpool is exacerbated by OPSS’s lack of civil sanctions. OPSS must become the truly independent and transparent regulator that we and others have called for, armed with a full array of powers to exert authority and ensure that we can have confidence in the safety of our electrical goods. The Minister has said that she will consult on the role of OPSS and that this will include considering making it an arms-length body like the Foods Standards Agency. She has also confirmed that the Government will address concerns over the use of NDAs. This is to be welcomed, but progress must not be stalled by more scoping. 4 The safety of electrical goods in the UK: follow-up Finally, the Minister has acknowledged the funding issues facing Local Trading Standards (LTS), the eyes and ears of the OPSS and the local product safety enforcer. LTS are struggling because they are primarily funded through local government grants, which have been cut, with other local priorities often taking precedence. We highlighted this in January 2018, as have others since, and we are surprised that no action has been taken. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy must stop hiding behind cuts elsewhere and take responsibility for LTS and work with others across Government to ensure it is fully funded. The safety of electrical goods in the UK: follow-up 5 1 Introduction 1. In January 2018, we published our report The Safety of Electrical Goods in the UK.1 This inquiry considered the safety of electrical goods, because they are a major source of housefires, as indicated below:2 Box 1: Domestic Appliance Fires in England by Appliance - 2010/11 and 2018/19 Source: Home Office,Publishing Incident Recording System data on the fire and rescue service at an Incident Level, (September 2019), p 10 2. Our Report highlighted key deficiencies in the UK’s product safety system, including: • The lack of a central national product safety agency; • The absence of a credible and comprehensive hub for product registration and recall information; • The need for better marking of electrical goods; • Incomplete injury and incident data collection; • And, the under-funding of Local Trading Standards. 1 BEIS Committee, The Safety of Electrical Goods in the UK, (HC 503; 16 January 2018). 2 Home Office,Publishing Incident Recording System data on the fire and rescue service at an Incident Level, (September 2019), p 10 6 The safety of electrical goods in the UK: follow-up 3. We were disappointed by the slow progress in these areas, especially since February 2016, when Lynn Faulds Wood made a series of sensible and well-received recommendations to address the gaps in our product safety system.3 We noted that ongoing problems with Whirlpool’s defective tumble dryers and concerns with plastic-backed fridges were emblematic of the wider problems in the system.4 4. In response to our report, the Government announced the creation of an Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSs) within the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The Government’s response also stated that OPSS would focus on some of the issues that we identified, such as upgrades to the Government’s existing recall database,5 concerns over Whirlpool’s tumble dryer modification programme,6 and improvements to standards on plastic-backed fridges.7 5. Though we welcomed the establishment of OPSS and the Government’s commitment to address many of the issues that we raised, it was soon clear that major concerns still remained. Problems with Whirlpool’s tumble dryers continued, as it appeared that many unmodified tumble dryers were not being fixed or replaced.8 We identified serious reservations about Whirlpool’s modification,9 and its approach to its customers, including the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements.10 There have also been concerns about the continuing sale of plastic-backed fridges,11 and of dangerous electrical goods both online and on the high street,12 including recalled second hand goods.13 These ongoing issues raised questions about the role of OPSS, and its apparent lack of progress in delivering some of the reforms we and others had called for.