The Office for Product Safety & Standards (OPSS) was created in January 2018 to deliver consumer protection and to support business confidence, productivity, and growth.

We regulate a wide range of products with a focus on their safety and integrity.

Following the UKs exit from the EU, the UK government has the opportunity to review its product safety framework.

A Call for Evidence for the UK Product Safety Review (PSR) was launched in March 2021, whereby views were sought from stakeholders, including businesses and consumer representatives on how to best ensure the framework is fit for the future.

Following the Call for Evidence, the government intends to consult on a set of proposals with the aim of ensuring business can continue to innovate and grow, and consumers remain safe.

One of the proposals being considered for consultation would enable businesses to apply for, and, if approved, be allowed a temporary derogation on certain product safety regulations (with appropriate safeguards) in order to speed up the supply of essential products needed to tackle an emergency.

We are looking to work with a supplier to help us deliver research work to support the further development and analysis of this proposal.

Ideally, we are seeking a supplier which has experience of working with government, particularly regulators.

The aim of this research is identify reasonable worst-case scenarios (potential emergencies) and the products regulated by OPSS that might be essential and in short supply.

This will then strengthen our knowledge and understanding on what the impacts will be to UK businesses and the wider economy during possible emergencies in the foreseeable future.

This research should focus on products relevant to OPSS, and examine whether a possible emergency will have enough of an impact to warrant the use of a derogation power.

The research should look to highlight a slate of the most likely emergencies for the UK in the next 30 years and provide data on what the market environment could look like.

The findings we are expecting will focus on (but not limited to): • Knowing the likelihood of the emergency occurring • The number of UK firms in that market • The supply and demand of the product critical to the national emergency. • To review and critique the research process and share knowledge of what worked and what did not The research methods are flexible and to be decided by the researcher, but we anticipate this to involve conducting literature reviews, market research, forecasting, and consulting with experts.

We have already started work on what emergencies we anticipate this research will focus on and will work with the supplier to refine and finalise the outputs.

The anticipated breadth and wide remit of this study should provide evidence to support conclusions and recommendations related to sectors/areas of interest which may lead to further research being commissioned.