UK Law and Practice Contributed by: Simon Antrobus KC, Mike Atkins, Elizabeth Boon, Richard Sage, David Myhill and Alex Antelme KC, Crown Office Chambers
1.4 Obligations to Notify Regulatory Authorities Provisions of the legislation referred to in 1.1 Product Safety Legal Framework include obli - gations to notify enforcement authorities of product safety risks. Those provisions operate in parallel with requirements to report certain categories of safety incidents that may raise product safety concerns. The General Product Safety Regulations 2005 Regulation 9 provides that a producer or a dis - tributor who knows that a product they have placed on the market or supplied poses risks to the consumer that are incompatible with the general safety requirement must notify an enforcement authority as quickly as is reason - ably possible in writing of that information and of the action taken to prevent risk to the consumer. This obligation does not apply where the safety issue relates to isolated circumstances or prod - ucts. In the event of “serious risk” (defined in regu - lation 2 to include risks whose effects are not immediate but require rapid intervention), the notification shall also include: • information enabling a precise identification of the product or batch of products in ques - tion; • a full description of the risks that the product presents; • all available information relevant for tracing the product; and • a description of the action undertaken to prevent risks to the consumer. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 The 1974 Act does not include any provision requiring notification of product safety risks to
requirements relating to contacting consumers, publishing information about the risk, and mak - ing arrangements for the collection, return or disposal of the product. Given the significant consequences of a recall notice, an enforcement authority may only serve a recall notice where: • other action would not be sufficient; • the action taken by the producer or distributor concerned is unsatisfactory or insufficient to address the risk; and • the enforcement authority has given not less than ten days’ notice of its intention to serve the notice. The recipient may require the enforcement authority to seek advice on the safety of the product and the proportionality of a recall notice, and the authority must take account of that advice. The second and third requirements do not apply where the product poses a serious risk that, in the view of the enforcement authority, requires urgent action. A recall notice may also require the recipient to keep the authority informed of the whereabouts of any product to which the notice relates, so far as they are able to do so. Where the enforcement authority is not able to identify any person on whom to serve a recall notice, or the person upon whom it has been served has failed to comply with it, the enforce - ment authority itself may take such action as could have been required by a recall notice. In the latter case, the enforcement authority may recover the cost of such action from the person on whom the notice was served.
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