Associated Press
Children's Halloween costumes deemed unsafe by government watchdog following the release of data last week.

The recent OPSS data found a large number of child Halloween costumes failed tests against GB legislation for product safety. London parents told City News they were ‘pretty damn scared’ of the OPSS conclusions.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) released data last week on 128 Halloween costumes aimed at 7 years olds and younger. Labelling and safety tests were carried out on the costumes, of which, more than 80% failed.

The issues tested included the potential of strangulation hazards due to cords and drawstrings on the costumes. As well as this, the flammability risk of costumes was tested, of which 22% failed. 80% of the costumes failed on the relevant labelling requirements declared under the Safety of Toys Regulation 2011.

 

Table to illustrate the tests conducted by the OPSS in June 2024. The rows of the table show the standards tested against. These included the flammability of toys, cords or drawstrings on children's clothing and adequate labelling. The columns of the table show the number of items tested and of those, how many passed, failed or were inconclusive. 256 costumes were tested for flammability and labelling, of those 129 passed, 126 failed and 1 was inconclusive. 73 costumes were tested for cords and drawstrings, of those 14 passed and 59 failed.

Table: Gwendolyn Baring .  Source: OPSS . Created with Datawrapper

The costumes were tested in line with the Safety of Toys Regulation 2011. The legislation ensures the highest level of toy safety for products on the market in Great Britain. Costumes were purchased from various online marketplaces and those which failed the tests have now been removed.

The OPSS is advising the public to buy costumes from legitimate retailers ahead of Halloween celebrations this week. They urge parents to be vigilant when children are around open flames and fires in their costumes.

Advice for parents 

The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) is a not-for-profit organisation which represents trading standards professionals. One of the Lead Officers for Product Safety at CTSI, Christine Heemskert told City News, “Many of these online marketplaces have third party sellers, who are based in China or somewhere in the far East, and the online marketplace itself doesn’t take any responsibility for it. Try to buy known brands from known retail sites…If it’s a well-known brand obviously that’s different – something you recognise from the Highstreet. Really try to avoid those third-party sellers.”

Christine warned parents to “look at the cord if it’s longer than about 10 cm, then it is potentially going to be a strangulation hazard…keep your children away from flames. Try not to have any candles or tealights, use those LED lights if necessary”.

This is not the first year the OPSS has released similar warnings around child Halloween costumes. Last year, they provided a list of costumes recalled for risk to safety. The list included a costume sold by Poundland named Creepy town hanging ghost.

Poundland told City News that they “took immediate action to withdraw the item and recall it at the time and apologised for the inconvenience.”

When asked about the ongoing issue, Christine said “It’s a really depressing picture actually. Unfortunately, many projects and surveys have found that it’s not just Halloween costumes – all products, have failed safety tests when they have been purchased online through these third-party sellers. The reason is, the online marketplaces themselves, don’t take responsibility. They’re not doing proactive checks with their suppliers and the people selling them. They really should be taking responsibility.”

‘It’s dangerous’  

We spoke to parents in Camden, London to get their opinions on the recent data. One parent said: “That’s pretty damn scary, there should be some more enforcement to protect children. Children do not have a clue…parents, officials, have”.

Another mother said: “I had no idea when my children were younger, I was probably buying those outfits for them, but I had no idea of the risk.” … “maybe this year I won’t be putting candles right outside of my door because they will come with their outfits sweeping past them, so yeah it’s dangerous.”

Another parent said: “It does bring some concern doesn’t it, because you would think the standards are in place to protect children from this type of thing”.

When asked about online marketplaces, one parent said, “they are being sold in the UK so you’d imagine the same regulations would apply to those, it’s quite a shock actually to find out they’re being sold without the CE marking”.

What’s next? 

Going forward, the CTSI and similar organisations are pushing for legislation that would ensure online marketplaces take greater accountability for their product safety, to give consumers easier opportunities for redress.