Retailers in UK must stop selling disposable barbecues in stores and online after the government said the products cannot currently be considered safe amid extreme heat, drought and heightened wildfire risk across Great Britain.
The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) issued statutory guidance on 14 August requiring retailers and other distributors to take the risks associated with disposable barbecues into account under the General Product Safety Regulations 2005.
The guidance states that disposable barbecues “must not be made available for sale either in store or online at the current time”. The measure applies while prevailing weather and environmental conditions create an increased risk of fires.
The intervention supersedes the voluntary, risk-based approach previously used by the retail sector and will remain under review as conditions change.
Retailers must withdraw products
The statutory guidance covers disposable barbecues designed for single outdoor use. It applies to producers and distributors, including retailers selling through physical stores and online channels.
Online marketplaces are also covered where they act as distributors under the General Product Safety Regulations.
Under the regulations, distributors must exercise due care to ensure that only safe products are supplied and must not make products available where they know, or should reasonably know, that they present a danger.
The guidance says retailers should take appropriate action to remove the risk posed by disposable barbecues, including withdrawing them from sale.
OPSS and local authority Trading Standards are responsible for enforcing product-safety requirements. Retailers may therefore need to cooperate with enforcement authorities and provide information about affected products where required.
The government said the restrictions will remain under review and will be withdrawn when weather and environmental conditions have reduced the risk sufficiently.
Statutory guidance supersedes voluntary approach
The government intervention follows voluntary guidance issued by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), which encouraged retailers to take a risk-based approach to disposable barbecue sales during periods of heightened fire risk.
The BRC guidance advised retailers to consider removing disposable barbecues from sale when extreme heat was imminent. It also recommended that businesses consider factors including government emergency alerts, the Fire Severity Index and local conditions when deciding whether to take action.
The new statutory guidance replaces that risk-based approach with a requirement that disposable barbecues must not currently be made available for sale.
The intervention follows a series of wildfires during the summer, with the government saying disposable barbecues have caused a number of serious incidents.
The BRC has continued to update its voluntary disposable BBQ guidance in response to increased concerns about fire risk during periods of dry weather.
Retailers await review timeline
The temporary nature of the restrictions leaves retailers with an important unanswered question: when will disposable barbecue sales be allowed to resume?
The British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) said it has sought clarification from OPSS over how long the restrictions are expected to remain in place and when they will be reviewed.
The statutory requirements apply across England, Scotland and Wales. The government has also advised businesses in Northern Ireland to follow the guidance, although the OPSS statutory requirements apply to Great Britain.
OPSS said the guidance will be reviewed as weather conditions change and withdrawn when environmental conditions have reduced the risk sufficiently.
Until the guidance is withdrawn, retailers in Great Britain must keep disposable barbecues off sale across physical and online channels.
