Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department is taking to improve the safety of hoverboards.

Anna Soubry

Self-balancing scooters, commonly referred to as hover-boards are regulated for safety under the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations. These Regulations require products to be safe. Enforcement of the Regulations rests with Trading Standards for consumer products. Trading Standards have already prevented over 100,000 being made available to consumers and further action is being taken as appropriate.

The Regulations provide powers for non-compliant products to be prevented from being made available to consumers until they are brought into compliance. Where products are not brought into compliance Trading Standards can apply to the Courts for permission to destroy the goods.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has been working with Trading Standards to ensure consistency of approach to deal with these products and to raise the profile of the potential safety issues with consumers.