Consumer Safety Act 1978

Safety regulations in respect of goods

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• (1) The Secretary of State may make regulations containing such provision authorised by subsections (2) and (3) of this section as the Secretary of State considers appropriate for the purpose of securing that goods are safe or that appropriate information is provided and inappropriate information is not provided in respect of goods; and regulations in pursuance of this subsection are hereafter in this Act referred to as " safety regulations ".

• (2) Safety regulations may contain provision—

• (a) with respect to the composition or contents, design, construction, finish or packing of goods or with respect to other matters relating to goods ;

• (b) for requiring goods to conform to a particular standard or to be approved or of a kind approved by a particular person and for requiring information to be given, and determining the manner in which it is to be given, for the purpose of indicating that the goods conform to that standard or are so approved or of such a kind;

• (c) with respect to standards for goods (which may be standards set out in the regulations or standards or parts of standards of which particulars have been published by any person in the United Kingdom or elsewhere) and with respect to the approval by the Secretary of State from time to time, for any purpose of the regulations, of standards or parts of standards of which particulars have been so published;

• (d) with respect to the giving, refusal, alteration and cancellation of approvals for goods or kinds of goods, with respect to the conditions and alteration of the conditions which may be attached to and the fees which may be charged for such approvals and with respect to appeals against refusals, alterations and cancellations of such approvals and against the conditions and alteration of conditions of such approvals ;

• (e) with respect to the testing or inspection of goods, for determining the manner in which and person by whom any test or inspection required by the regulations is to be carried out and for determining the standards to be applied in carrying out such a test or inspection;

• (f) with respect to the ways of dealing with goods of which some or all do not satisfy a test prescribed by the regulations or a standard connected with a procedure so prescribed;

• (g) for requiring a warning or instructions or other information relating to goods to be marked on or to accompany the goods or to be given in some other manner in connection with the goods, and for securing that inappropriate information is not given in respect of goods either by means of misleading marks or otherwise ;

• (h) for prohibiting persons from supplying, or from offering to supply, agreeing to supply, exposing for supply or possessing for supply, goods which the Secretary of State considers are not safe and goods in respect of which requirements of the regulations are not satisfied ;

• (i) for prohibiting persons from supplying, or from offering to supply, agreeing to supply, exposing for supply or possessing for supply, goods which are designed to be used as component parts of other goods and which would if so used cause the other goods to contravene requirements of the regulations.

• (3) Safety regulations may—

• (a) make different provision for different circumstances or provision relating only to specified circumstances ;

• (b) provide for exemptions from any provision of the regulations;

• (c) contain such incidental and supplemental provisions as the Secretary of State considers appropriate.

• (4) Where the Secretary of State proposes to make safety regulations it shall be his duty before he makes them to consult such organisations as appear to him to be representative of interests substantially affected by the proposal and such other persons as he considers appropriate and, in the case of proposed regulations relating to goods suitable for use at work, to consult the Health and Safety Commission.

Offences against the safety regulations

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• (1) Where safety regulations prohibit a person from supplying or offering or agreeing to supply goods or from exposing or possessing goods for supply, then, subject to the following provisions of this section, the person shall be guilty of an offence if he contravenes the prohibition.

• (2) Where safety regulations require a person who makes or processes goods in the course of carrying on a business—

• (a) to carry out a particular test or use a particular procedure in connection with the making or processing of the goods with a view to ascertaining whether the goods satisfy other requirements of the regulations; or

• (b) to deal or not to deal in a particular way with a quantity of the goods of which the whole or part does not satisfy the test or does not satisfy standards connected with the procedure,

then, subject to the following provisions of this section, the person shall be guilty of an offence if he does not comply with the requirement.

• (3) If a person contravenes a provision of safety regulations which prohibits the provision, by means of a mark or otherwise, of information of a particular kind in connection with goods, then, subject to the following provisions of this section, he shall be guilty of an offence.

• (4) A person who commits an offence in pursuance of the preceding provisions of this section (hereafter in this section referred to as " a relevant offence ") shall be liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months and a fine of an amount not exceeding £1,000.

• (5) Where the commission of a relevant offence by any person is due to the act or default of some other person, the other person shall be guilty of the offence and may be charged with and convicted of it whether or not proceedings are taken against the first-mentioned person.

• (6) It shall be a defence to a charge of committing a relevant offence to prove that the accused took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid committing the offence; but if in any case the defence provided by this subsection involves an allegation that the commission of the offence was due to the act or default of another person or due to reliance on information supplied by another person, the person charged shall not, without the leave of the court, be entitled to rely on the defence unless, within a period ending seven clear days before the hearing, he has served on the prosecutor a notice giving such information identifying or assisting in the identification of the other person as was then in his possession.

• (7) Safety regulations may contain provision—

• (a) for requiring persons on whom a duty is imposed by virtue of section 5 of this Act to have regard, in performing the duty so far as it relates to a provision of safety regulations, to matters specified in a direction issued by the Secretary of State with respect to that provision;

• (b) for securing that a person shall not be guilty of an offence by virtue of subsection (1) of this section unless it is proved that the goods in question do not conform to a particular standard ;

• (c) for securing that proceedings for a relevant offence are not begun in England or Wales except by or with the consent of the Secretary of State or the Director of Public Prosecutions;

• (d) except in relation to Scotland, for enabling a magistrates' court to try an information in respect of a relevant offence if the information was laid within twelve months from the time when the offence was committed and, in relation to Scotland, for enabling summary proceedings for a relevant offence to be begun at any time within twelve months from the time when the offence was committed;

and it is hereby declared that subsection (3) of the preceding section applies to safety regulations made by virtue of this subsection.

• (8) Safety regulations shall not provide for a contravention of the regulations to be an offence.

Orders and notices to prohibit supply of goods or give warning of danger from goods

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• (1) The Secretary of State may—

• (a) make orders (hereafter in this Act referred to as " prohibition orders") prohibiting persons from supplying, or from offering to supply, agreeing to supply, exposing for supply or possessing for supply—

• (i) any goods which the Secretary of State considers are not safe and which are described in the orders, and

• (ii) any goods which are designed to be used as component parts of other goods and which would if so used cause the other goods to be goods described in the orders in pursuance of sub-paragraph (i) above;

• (b) serve on any person a notice (hereafter in this Act referred to as a " prohibition notice ") prohibiting the person, except with the consent of the Secretary of State and in accordance with the conditions (if any) on which the consent is given, from supplying, or from offering to supply, agreeing to supply, exposing for supply or possessing for supply, any goods which the Secretary of State considers are not safe and which are described in the notice ;

• (c) serve on any person a notice (hereafter in this Act referred to as a " notice to warn ") requiring the person to publish, in a form and manner and on occasions specified in the notice and at his own expense, a warning about any goods so specified which the Secretary of State considers are not safe and which the person supplies or has supplied.

• (2) Part I of Schedule 1 to this Act shall have effect with respect to prohibition orders, Part II of that Schedule shall have effect with respect to prohibition notices and Part III of that Schedule shall have effect with respect to notices to warn; and subsection (3) of section 1 of this Act shall apply to prohibition orders as it applies to safety regulations.

• (3) A person who contravenes a prohibition order, a prohibition notice or a notice to warn shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months and a fine of an amount not exceeding £1,000; but it shall be a defence to a charge of committing an offence under this subsection to prove that the accused took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid committing the offence.

• (4) If in any case the defence provided by the preceding subsection involves an allegation that the commission of the offence was due to the act or default of another person or to reliance on information supplied by another person, the person charged shall not, without the leave of the court, be entitled to rely on the defence unless, within a period ending seven clear days before the hearing, he has served on the prosecutor a notice giving such information identifying or assisting in the identification of the other person as was then in his possession.

• (5) Where the commission by any person of an offence of contravening a prohibition order is due to the act or default of some other person the other person shall be guilty of the offence and may be charged with and convicted of the offence by virtue of this subsection whether or not proceedings are taken against the first-mentioned person.

Power to obtain information

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• (1) If the Secretary of State considers that, for the purpose of deciding whether to make, vary or revoke safety regulations or a prohibition order or to serve, vary or revoke a prohibition notice or to serve or revoke a notice to warn, he requires information which another person is likely to be able to furnish, the Secretary of State may serve on the other person a notice requiring the person—

• (a) to furnish to the Secretary of State, within a period specified in the notice, such information as is so specified;

• (b) to produce such documents as are specified in the notice at a time and place so specified and to permit a person appointed by the Secretary of State for the purpose to take copies of the documents at that time and place;

but a barrister, advocate or solicitor shall not be required by such a notice to furnish information contained in a privileged communication made by or to him in that capacity or to produce a document containing such a communication.

• (2) A person who—

• (a) fails, without reasonable cause, to comply with a notice served on him in pursuance of the preceding subsection ; or

• (b) in purporting to comply with a requirement which by virtue of paragraph (a) of the preceding subsection is contained in a notice served on him in pursuance of that subsection, furnishes information which he knows is false in a material particular or recklessly furnishes information which is false in a material particular,

shall be guilty of an offence and, in the case of an offence under paragraph (a) of this subsection, liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £1,000 and, in the case of an offence under paragraph (b) of this subsection, liable on conviction on indictment to a fine and on summary conviction to a fine of an amount not exceeding the statutory maximum.

• (3) No information obtained by virtue of this section shall be disclosed except—

• (a) for the purpose of any criminal proceedings or any investigation with a view to such proceedings; or

• (b) for the purpose of facilitating the performance by the Director General of Fair Trading of his functions under Part III of the Fair Trading Act 1973 or for the purpose of any proceedings under the said Part III; or

• (c) for the purpose of enabling the Secretary of State to decide whether to make, vary or revoke safety regulations or a prohibition order or whether to serve, vary or revoke a prohibition notice or to serve or revoke a notice to warn ; or

• (d) for the purpose of enabling the Secretary of State or a Northern Ireland Department to fulfil a Community obligation; or

• (e) in a prohibition notice, a notice to warn or a warning published as required by a notice to warn or in a warning about goods which is published by the Secretary of State;

but the prohibition on disclosure imposed by this subsection does not apply to publicised information.

• (4) A person who discloses information in contravention of the preceding subsection shall be guilty of an offence and liable, on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years and a fine and, on summary conviction, to a fine of an amount not exceeding the statutory maximum.

Enforcement

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• (1) Subject to the following subsection, it shall be the duty of each weights and measures authority to enforce within its area the provisions of safety regulations and section 2 of this Act and the provisions of prohibition orders and prohibition notices and subsections (3) and (5) of section 3 of this Act so far as those subsections relate to such orders and notices.

• (2) The Secretary of State may by regulations transfer the whole or part of the duty imposed on a weights and measures authority by the preceding subsection to another person who has agreed to the transfer; and the regulations may, without prejudice to the generality of the preceding provisions of this subsection—

• (a) make different provision for different circumstances; and

• (b) contain such incidental and supplemental provisions (including provision for the Secretary of State to defray expenses of a person on whom a duty is imposed by the regulations) as the Secretary of State considers appropriate.

• (3) The provisions of Schedule 2 to this Act shall have effect for the purpose of facilitating—

• (a) the enforcement by the Secretary of State of provisions mentioned in subsection (1) of this section ; and

• (b) the performance of a duty imposed on a person by virtue of this section ;

but nothing in the preceding provisions of this subsection prejudices any powers which are exercisable by the Secretary of State apart from this subsection.

• (4) If the Secretary of State directs a person on whom a duty is imposed by virtue of subsection (1) or (2) of this section to make a report to the Secretary of State, in such form and containing such particulars as are specified in the direction, on the exercise of the person's functions under this Act or, while the Consumer Protection Act 1961 remains in force, under this Act and that Act, it shall be the duty of the person to comply with the direction.

• (5) Nothing in the preceding provisions of this section or in regulations made by virtue of subsection (2) of this section authorises a weights and measures authority or a person specified in the regulations to institute proceedings in Scotland for an offence.

Civil liability

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• (1) Any obligation imposed on a person by safety regulations or a prohibition order or a prohibition notice is a duty owed by him to any other person who may be affected by a failure to perform the obligation, and a breach of that duty is actionable (subject to the defences and other incidents applying to actions for breach of statutory duty).

• (2) An agreement shall be void so far as it would, apart from this subsection, have the effect of excluding or restricting an obligation mentioned in the preceding subsection or liability for a breach of such an obligation.

• (3) References in the preceding provisions of this section to an obligation imposed by safety regulations do not include such an obligation as to which the regulations state that those provisions do not apply to it.

• (4) A contravention of any provision of safety regulations, a prohibition order or a prohibition notice and the commission of an offence under section 2 or 3 of this Act shall not affect the validity of any contract or rights arising under any contract except so far as the contract provides otherwise.

Supplemental

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• (1) The Secretary of State may make regulations with respect to the manner of giving information in pursuance of Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 to this Act.

• (2) Any document required or authorised by virtue of this Act to be served on a person may be so served—

• (a) by delivering it to him or by leaving it at his proper address or by sending it by post to him at that address; or

• (b) if the person is a body corporate, by serving it in accordance with the preceding paragraph on the secretary or clerk of that body ; or

• (c) if the person is a partnership, by serving it as aforesaid on a partner or on a person having control or management of the partnership business.