Initially, I often judge an organisation by the telephone numbers it uses: if it uses 0870 or 0871 I mark it down as a shady organisation out to fleece me; if it uses a geographical number, it starts of in a favourable light. Mintell appears to be using a normal geographical number, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt in the recent toy recall. As NGM points out the matter is a disgrace. I feel a major portion of blame lies with others.
In taking over the responsibility for product standards – of which "toy safety" was a flagship programme - the EU Commission has enforced the dismantling of national safety monitoring programmes and prevented member states from carrying out their own local checks – such as routine sampling of products in the shops.
Instead of this, in came a system of EU-wide harmonisation, "based on the simple condition that the producer guarantees that its products are safe." It requires manufacturers to carry out a battery of procedures, which must be verified by an independent agency, on completion of which they could affix the coveted
CE
[this should be a curved 'E' but I can't do one] mark to goods, which effectively guaranteed immunity from official inspection.
UK borders have been forcibly opened to a torrent of cheap, often substandard imports. And, as long as they carried the CE mark and had the correct paperwork, local port inspectors were effectively prohibited from examining the goods.
What were termed "technical inspections" were condemned as "barriers to trade", on the basis of which the commission rigorously pursued their agenda of dismantling port controls, with over 1000 references to the European Court of Justice.