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.