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Product liability: into the unknown

17 March 2021 / Sarah Moore , Stuart Warmington
Issue: 7925 / Categories: Features , Regulatory , Brexit , Health & safety , EU
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Product liability post-Brexit: Sarah Moore & Stuart Warmington discuss what the post-Brexit ‘new world’ might look like for product regulation in the UK
  • What might the post-Brexit ‘new world’ look like for product regulation in the UK? Can the UK’s domestic regulator alone keep us safe? And what legal challenges will be created?

Irrespective of whether the words in this title trigger Frozen 2 flashbacks, or not, they pose a crucial question in the context of post-Brexit product liability.

On 31 December 2020, we moved out of the Brexit transition period, and into, well, the unknown, with respect to the network of institutions and agencies across the EU that have worked alongside our domestic regulator—the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA)—to protect patients and consumers from unsafe medical products.

The UK entered the European Economic Community, the predecessor to the EU, in 1973. A year prior, Sir Harold Evans at the Sunday Times had broken the story of the Thalidomide tragedy. Evans’s reporting exposed

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Winckworth Sherwood—Tim Foley

Winckworth Sherwood—Tim Foley

Property litigation practice strengthened by partner hire

Kingsley Napley—Romilly Holland

Kingsley Napley—Romilly Holland

International arbitration team specialist joins the team

Red Lion Chambers—Maurice MacSweeney

Red Lion Chambers—Maurice MacSweeney

Set creates new client and business development role amid growth

NEWS
Property lawyers have given a cautious welcome to the government’s landmark Bill capping ground rents at £250, banning new leasehold properties and making it easier for leaseholders to switch to commonhold
Four Nightingale courts are to be made permanent, as justice ministers continue to grapple with the record-level Crown Court backlog
The judiciary has set itself a trio of objectives and a trio of focus areas for the next five years, in its Judicial Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2026-2030

The Sentencing Act 2026 received royal assent last week, bringing into law the recommendations of David Gauke’s May 2025 Independent Sentencing Review

Victims of crime are to be given free access to transcripts of Crown Court sentencing remarks, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has confirmed
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