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Lithium-ion Batteries  

What’s the issue?  

  • With the increasing use of e-bikes and scooters as part of urban commutes, more lithium-ion batteries are entering workplaces, creating new hazards for employers to both manage and mitigate. 
  • While the presence of lithium-ion batteries in the workplace is not new, having previously been used in a range of consumer electronics, the rate of e-bike and scooters batteries being stored and/or charged in the workplace is posing risks to individual and collective safety.  
  • A significant rise in the number of domestic fires (and associated injuries and fatalities) has been linked to the charging of e-bikes and e-scooters.  
  • Alongside this, poorly manufactured, improperly used, and damaged batteries pose a greater risk of combustion (and therefore a pose a greater risk to safety).  
  • As more of our homes become our places of work too, the nature of workplace and work-related risks are changing, and the UK’s legislative and regulatory regime also needs to change to keep workers safe, wherever they may be working.  

What’s our position? 

  • The UK’s legislative and regulatory regime needs to be, at different times, both responsive and proactive.  
  • It requires   Ministers to have the powers they need to quickly regulate new and emerging products, where they pose a risk to consumers.  
  • For this reason, we support the passage of the Product Regulation and Metrology Act (2025).  
  • While it paves the way to protect consumers from future harms, the Act as enacted, fails to protect consumers from the harms associated with Lithium-ion batteries, which are already in our homes and workplaces.  

For this reason, we call on Government to: 

  • Introduce product specific secondary legislation targeted at reducing lithium-ion battery risks, both inside and outside of the workplace.  
  • Introduce limited new duties on employers to: 
  •  Risk assess the presence of lithium-ion batteries in their workplace/s, with enhanced assessments linked to e-bike and e-scooter batteries.  
  • Take all reasonably practicable steps to reduce occupational risks associated with Lithium-ion batteries.  
  • We also call on employers to introduce workplace policies to prohibit at desk, under-desk and unmanned or unsupervised charging of e-bike or e-scooter batteries.  
  • We call on the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to issue new guidance to employers around safe usage and storage of Lithium-ion batteries in the workplace.  

Asks:  

In our workplaces (employers):  

  • Employers should immediately risk assess lithium-ion battery risks in their workplaces and introduce policies which prohibit at desk, under-desk and unmanned or unsupervised charging of e-bike or e-scooter batteries. 
  • Designate safe, ventilated charging areas away from flammable materials as a minimum.  
  • Train staff on battery risks (including safe handling, identifying damage and proper usage).  
  • Ensure that all e-bike or scooter batteries being charged in the workplace meet the requirements set out in the Statutory Safety Guidelines.  
  • Employers purchasing or supplying e-bikes or batteries (e.g. for staff use) should ensure products meet certified safety standards

Across the UK (Government, policymakers and regulatory):  

National Government:  

  • Introduce product specific secondary legislation targeted at reducing lithium-ion battery risks, both inside and outside of the workplace. 
  • Including, expanding mandatory safety standards to cover all lithium-ion battery types, and ensure legal application to refurbished electronics and aftermarket modification kits (for e-bikes and e-scooters). 
  • Introduce limited new duties on employers to: 
  • Risk assess the presence of lithium-ion batteries in their workplace/s, with enhanced assessments linked to e-bike and e-scooter batteries.  
  • Take all reasonably practicable steps to reduce occupational risks associated with Lithium-ion batteries.  
  • Develop, and enforce, a national standard for e‑bike conversion kits, which currently lack consistent safety criteria.  
  • Create a new duty and reporting framework for occupational fires where Lithium-ion batteries are cited as point of origin.  

Health and Safety Executive: 

  • The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) should issue new guidance to employers around safe usage and storage of Lithium-ion batteries in the workplace. 

Globally:  

  •  Harmonise safety standards by aligning UN, IEC, and ISO standards for battery safety. 
  • Promote global certification schemes with third party testing.