What can the Buying Community do for you, and what are our plans for 2023?

Through our engaged community of product safety experts within retail we have:

• Reduced costs and requirements for retailers, by successfully lobbying for delays and easements on the use of the CE Mark and UKCA mark
• Updated and reviewed guidelines on children’s clothing
• Answered many of your compliance questions on areas such as textile labelling, toy labelling and selling products in Northern Ireland

We have also lobbied for:

• Fewer registration requirements and administrative burdens for chemicals
• A sensible approach to selling through of light sources
• Less divergence on product safety laws following the incoming review of retained EU law

This year we will:

• Ensure that the government's requirements from the incoming product safety review are common sense and favourable for retailers
• Support members by helping them review their use of ‘forever chemicals’ (PFAS), by providing access and educational events and materials
• Work to minimise the impact on retail products of the Retained EU Legislation bill, which is reviewing almost 3,000 pieces of EU legislation

How to get involved

Join the following groups

• Buying Community Group: The place to share any non-food compliance issues. Discuss topics of the day in confidence with other retailers. Get the latest on what’s happening and what’s coming up in product safety. You’ll get our email updates on the latest issues in product safety.
• Household Goods Group: If you sell cosmetics, cleaning products or chemicals then this is the group for you. Get exclusive updates from other retailers, influencers and key decision-makers in household goods. This group also provides access to training in areas such as REACH and PFAS

Ask Adrian

• Have a product compliance question that needs answering? Maybe you don’t know whether a product requires a certain label, or you’d like to know about the latest test methods. Ask Adrian and he’ll put the question out to members. We then publish the answers on the Buying Community website.