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<p>Local Authorities are independent from central government and are responsible for
their own finances and funding decisions, accountable to their local electorates.</p><p>Government
identified the need for national leadership and co-ordination of the product safety
system and established the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) in January
2018 to fulfil this role.</p><p>OPSS has built capability to lead on national product
safety issues. This includes commissioning a strategic research programme; setting
up arrangements to deal with national product safety incidents; and forming a trading
standards co-ordination unit to support the work that Local Authorities carry out
on product safety in their local areas.</p><p>As part of its support for Local Authority
Trading Standards, OPSS has made available £600,000 this year to Local Authorities
for product safety testing, trained over 700 trading standards staff from 211 Local
Authorities and provided scientific and technical support to increase Trading Standards
capability on product safety regulation.</p>
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