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<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
in January 2018 to fulfil this role. The Office has built capability to lead on scientific
and technical issues, including commissioning a research programme; set up arrangements
to deal with national product safety incidents; and formed a trading standards co-ordination
unit to support the work that Local Authorities carry out on product safety in their
local areas.</p><p> </p><p>We value the important role that Local Authority Trading
Standards carry out in enforcing product safety measures, protecting consumers and
providing advice to businesses at a local level. Local Authorities are independent
from central government and are responsible for their own finances and funding decisions,
accountable to their local electorates. As part of its support for Local Authority
Trading Standards, OPSS has made available £500,000 per annum to Local Authorities
for product safety testing, trained over 650 trading standards staff from 211 Local
Authorities and provided scientific and technical support in responding to incidents
to increase their capability on product safety regulation.</p>
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