The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have updated guidance for businesses on Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 (the EU Batteries Regulation) in Northern Ireland. The guidance explains current requirements covering substance restrictions, safety, technical documentation, conformity assessment, CE marking and labelling. It also outlines forthcoming obligations, including removability and replaceability requirements for portable and light means of transport batteries and digital passports for specified batteries from 18 February 2027. Battery due diligence requirements have been postponed until 18 August 2027. Some requirements depend on supplementary EU legislation, including delayed carbon footprint measures, and businesses are advised to check for updates.

The Office for Product Safety & Standards (OPSS) has updated the consumer connectable product security regulations guidance. This update comes as the product security law comes into effect on 29 April 2024—including Part 1 of the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 and the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (Security Requirements for Relevant Connectable Products) Regulations 2023, SI 2023/1007. It aims to ensure that businesses understand the requirements and the need to comply with the legislation. For these purposes, the guidance explains the enforcement powers that are available to the OPSS when addressing non-compliance with the legislation. These relate to the service of a compliance, stop or recall notice, the imposition of monetary penalties, and application for a forfeiture order. This guidance builds on the wide range of communications within the industry over the past few years explaining the security requirements for 'smart' and connectable products.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has revised its enforcement service standards document as of 20 November 2024, aligning it with their updated enforcement policy. This guidance, aimed at businesses regulated by OPSS, outlines the efficient and professional service they can expect from the authority. The document reaffirms OPSS's commitment to fair, unbiased, and objective treatment of regulated entities, adherence to relevant legal requirements and codes of practice, and a supportive approach to compliance and growth. It also emphasises OPSS's collaborative efforts with local, national, and international regulatory counterparts to streamline business engagement and share expertise.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has updated its guidance on how businesses should notify authorities about unsafe or non-compliant products. The guidance outlines the obligations for businesses supplying consumer and non-consumer products on the UK market to notify relevant authorities where products pose a risk to consumer health and safety or do not comply with the relevant legislation.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has updated its guidance on notifications of unsafe and non-compliant products to version 11. The guidance specifies how UK market surveillance authorities must use the Product Safety Database (PSD) to report unsafe and non-compliant products. The update includes additional guidance for Northern Ireland and the addition of information on publication and modification programmes.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has announced that the UK’s consumer connectable product security regime will come into force on 29 April 2024. The regime includes Part 1 of the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 (PSTI 2022) and the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (Security Requirements for Relevant Connectable Products) Regulations 2023, SI 2023/1007. The OPSS will be the enforcement authority responsible from 29 April 2024, which will ensure compliance with the legislation on behalf of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Supply chains businesses of these products will need to comply with the new legislation from that date.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have published a joint statement addressing asbestos contamination in sand-containing consumer products. Several product categories are subject to recall, including craft kits, science kits, toys containing sand and decorative doorstops. Play pit sand is not currently subject to recall. OPSS is requiring industry to remove affected products from sale and recall them from consumers. The statement clarifies that recall obligations reflect this zero-tolerance approach and are not an indication of the level of risk to consumers, with health risks from recalled products during normal use expected to be low. The statement also sets out business regulatory responsibilities under the UK product safety framework and advises the public on actions to take if they own or have come into contact with recalled products.

The Open Rights Group (ORG) has published a technical report titled 'Pervasive identity surveillance for marketing purposes' on the investigation it commissioned, carried out by independent research institute, Cracked Labs and data protection expert, Alan Toner, which highlighted that the ‘new’ adtech system being rolled out by LiveRamp undermined users' online privacy in Europe, France and the UK. The investigation found that LiveRamp’s new system, which it presented as a practical alternative, failed to deal with or enhance any of the substantive issues raised by ORG in its 2018 complaint. The report also found that internet users were exposed to more privacy-invasive profiling, which can link their browsing habits to their real identity, including home addresses.

The digital rights campaign organisation Open Rights Group (ORG) has, in a new report, examined the UK government's e-Visa scheme. In the report ORG remarks that insistence on a digital-only system creates threats to, and potential violations of, human rights by not providing alternative means to prove a person’s immigration status, especially for vulnerable groups. The report goes on to address various issues with the new scheme and provides a list of recommendations in order to address the flaws it has identified.

The Open Rights Group (ORG), working in collaboration with Migrant Voice, has published a report examining the Home Office’s rollout of mandatory eVisas. The system, in place since 1 June 2025, requires most migrants to prove their legal status exclusively online, replacing physical documents such as Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs). The report warns that the UK’s shift to a digital-only immigration status system has created significant barriers for migrants, including device-specific limitations.

The Open Rights Group (ORG) has published a joint legal opinion, written by Cloisters Chambers’ Robin Allen KC and Dee Masters, and Joshua Jackson of Doughty Street Chambers, examining the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools by the UK government, focusing on the Home Office’s asylum process and the deployment of generative AI systems such as the Asylum Case Summarisation (ACS) and Asylum Policy Search (APS) tools.  The opinion highlights that governments are increasingly using AI to improve efficiency, speed and cost-effectiveness, particularly in the context of a growing backlog of asylum cases but emphasises that such use raises significant risks where decisions affect migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers. It identifies concerns including inaccuracy, lack of transparency and risks to human rights, noting that AI systems may ‘hallucinate’, process vast amounts of personal data and produce discriminatory outputs, all of which require careful regulation and safeguards.

Office of Rail Regulation