“No one responsible”: Steve Aiken MLA raises alarm over toy safety in NI due to Windsor Framework

Concerns have been raised at Stormont that no public authority is currently responsible for toy safety in Northern Ireland, leaving a critical gap in oversight for products designed for children.

MLAs on the Assembly’s Windsor Framework Committee have warned that they were unable to scrutinise proposed EU toy safety rules after no evidence was provided by the UK Government, Northern Ireland departments or local councils — because none of them hold formal responsibility for the issue.

The situation emerged during consideration of EU regulation COM/2023/462, a proposal for a Regulation on the safety of toys, prompting alarm over what committee members described as a growing list of “orphan” policy areas under post-Brexit arrangements.

Windsor Framework spokesperson Dr Steve Aiken OBE MLA, speaking on Thursday, January 22, said the lack of accountability made meaningful scrutiny impossible.

“The Windsor Framework Committee today met to consider our report on EU directives on toy safety.  We had set out to gather evidence on this important issue; however, we, as a Committee, were unable to come to any conclusion on this directive because, bizarrely, we did not have any evidence presented to us; not by His Majesty’s Government, nor by any NI department or indeed local government organisation.”

Dr Aiken said the absence of evidence was not accidental but the result of a regulatory vacuum created since Northern Ireland began applying EU toy safety law under the Windsor Framework.

“This is because, in the best Windsor Framework Kafkaesque fashion, none of them have responsibility for toy safety in Northern Ireland.”

Prior to the Windsor Framework, toy safety across the UK was overseen by the Department for Business and Trade, through its Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS). However, Dr Aiken said that arrangement no longer applies in Northern Ireland.

“Pre-Windsor Framework, the Department for Business and Trade, with its Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), was responsible for toy safety in the United Kingdom. But because that only pertains to UK legislation, Northern Ireland doesn’t come under that designation anymore because our toy safety comes under EU directives.”

He said no alternative body has stepped in to fill the gap.

“None of our NI Departments or Local Councils have taken on that responsibility, and like 10 other areas of ‘orphan’ responsibility so far identified, no one is accountable to MLAs, Councillors, or the public, for any of these regulatory or safety issues.”

The implications, he suggested, are serious — particularly when the issue involves products intended for children.

“In the very limited scrutiny powers that our NI Assembly has, the only option was for us to say that we had insufficient evidence to derive an opinion,” he said.

“Can you imagine something as important as toy safety having no one responsible for it, Leeds South? I’m pretty certain the local MP would have something to say about that.”

Dr Aiken also expressed frustration at assurances from Westminster that the issue had been noted and would be addressed through future consultation.

“But we are apparently not to worry because Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds MP (Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office) has noted this and as the Department for Business and Trade is going out for consultation on toy safety for the rest of our nation in the next six months, we, apparently, should be reassured.”

“It is safe to say that we are not.”

He argued that Northern Ireland is being left with fewer safeguards than the rest of the UK, despite commitments to maintain standards under the Windsor Framework.

“It’s a pity that when he’s Secretary of State for Northern Ireland he’s quite happy for rigorous implementation to mean we don’t have the same safeguards.”

Dr Aiken concluded that the Government’s response to concerns previously raised by Lord Murphy had already fallen short.

“The Government’s much vaunted response to Lord Murphy’s has failed at the first hurdle.”

The committee’s findings add to wider concerns among MLAs that the Windsor Framework has created areas where democratic scrutiny is weakened and responsibility is unclear — even in matters as fundamental as consumer and child safety.