Form_223_Supporting Statement_2019

INFORMATION COLLECTION REQUEST (ICR)
Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act
Consumer Product Conformity Assessment Body Registration Form
SUPPORTING STATEMENT

A.

Justification

1.

Information to be collected and circumstances that makes the collection of
information necessary
On August 14, 2008, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA)
(Pub. L. 110-314) was signed into law. Section 102 of the Act mandates that
third party testing be conducted for any children’s product, that is subject to a
children’s product safety rule, before importing for consumption or warehousing
or distributing in commerce. Every manufacturer of such children’s product (and
the private labeler of such children’s product if such product bears a private
label) must submit samples to a third party conformity assessment body
accredited under requirements established by the Commission to be tested for
compliance with such children’s product safety rule. Based on the assessment
by the third party conformity assessment body, the manufacturer or private
labeler must then issue a certificate that certifies that such children’s product
complies with the children’s product safety rule.
The CPSIA defines a third party conformity assessment body as one that is not
owned, managed or controlled by the manufacturer or private labeler of a
product assessed by such conformity assessment body. A conformity
assessment body that is owned, managed, or controlled by a manufacturer or
private labeler may, in certain specified circumstances, be accredited as a third
party conformity assessment body. (The CPSIA also refers to such entities as
“firewalled conformity assessment bodies.”) The CPSIA also specifies that a
third party conformity assessment body may include a government owned or
government controlled entity under certain conditions.
The Act provides that accreditation of third party conformity assessment bodies
may be conducted either by the Commission or by an independent accreditation
organization designated by the Commission, and requires that the Commission
maintain on its web site an up-to-date list of entities that have been accredited to
assess conformity with children’s product safety rules.
In order to assess a third party conformity assessment body’s status as either
independent third party, government third party, or firewalled, and its
qualifications for recognition by CPSC to test for compliance to specified
children’s product safety rules, information related to location, accreditation, and
1

ownership must be collected from third party conformity assessment bodies
voluntarily seeking recognition by CPSC. The collection of this information is
required: 1) upon initial application by the third party conformity assessment
body for recognition by CPSC; 2) whenever there is a change to accreditation or
ownership information; and 3) at least every 2 years as part of a regular audit
process.
2.

Use and sharing of collected information
The CPSC will use the information to identify third party conformity assessment
bodies that meet the requirements, as published by the Commission, to test for
compliance to specified children’s product safety rules. Those third party
conformity assessment bodies found to meet the requirements will be listed on
the CPSC web site.

3.

Use of Information Technology (IT) in information collection
The collection of information would occur through a form on the CPSC web site.

4.

Efforts to Identify Duplication
Section 14(a)(3) and (d)(1) of the Consumer Product Safety Act expressly
require the Commission to establish notices of requirements for the accreditation
of third party conformity assessment bodies and to establish periodic audit
requirements. While some of these third party conformity assessment bodies
may perform testing for products outside the Commission’s jurisdiction, the
statutory framework in the CPSA makes it unlikely that duplication of data exists.

5.

Impact on small business
The Small Business Administration considers a testing laboratory to be a small
business if its annual revenue is less than $15.0 million. No exceptions to the
rules governing third party conformity assessment bodies exist for small
businesses.

6.

Consequences to Federal program or policy activities if collection is not
conducted or is conducted less frequently
Failure to provide the information sought by the questionnaire would impair the
CPSC’s ability to identify third party conformity assessment bodies qualified to
conduct the required children’s product testing. Additionally, because section
14(a)(2) of the CPSA requires third party testing of children’s products, an
inability to list accredited third party conformity assessment bodies would impair
the ability of manufacturers and private labelers to identify entities that could test
2

their products and impair their ability to certify, as required under the CPSIA, that
the product complies with all applicable children’s product safety rules.
7.

Special circumstances requiring respondents to report information more
often than quarterly or to prepare responses in fewer than 30 days
Not applicable.

8.

Agency’s Federal Register Notice and related information
An FR notice was published September 6, 2019. No comments were received.

9.

Decision to provide payment or gift
The CPSC will not provide any payment or gifts to third party conformity
assessment body owners in connection with the information collection.

10.

Assurance of confidentiality
The information recorded in response to the questions on the form would be
subject to the Freedom of Information Act and its exemptions to public
disclosure.

11.

Questions of a sensitive nature
Questions regarding ownership and business relationships and third party
conformity assessment body personnel may be considered sensitive.

12.

Estimate of hour burden to respondents
The estimated total reporting burden is 332.5hours. We estimate the burden of
this collection of information as follows:

3

Table 1 - Estimated Annual Reporting Burden
Activity

Number of
Respondents

Initial
Registration
ReRegistration
Changes in
Information

•
•

•

Total Annual
Responses

Hours per
Response

Total
Hours

40

Frequency
of
Responses
1

40

1

40

291

1

291

1

291

6

1

6

0.25

1.5

Total

332.5

Our estimates are based on the following information:
Based on applications received from FY 2013 to date, we estimate that about 40
new applications from third party conformity assessment bodies will be submitted
each year for the next few years
Under the final rule, third party conformity assessment bodies are required to
resubmit CPSC Form 223 every two years. As all third party conformity
assessment bodies have not submitted their first CPSC Form 223s at the same
time, only about half would be expected to resubmit a CPSC Form 223 in any
one year. As of August 2019, 581 third party conformity assessment bodies
have registered with CPSC. Approximately half (291) of these firms would be
required to re-register with CPSC each year.
Under the final rule issued by the Commission, third party conformity
assessment bodies are required to ensure that the information submitted on
CPSC Form 223 is current and to submit a new CPSC Form 223 whenever the
information changes. Based on current experience with third party conformity
assessment bodies, we estimate that 2 third party conformity assessment bodies
will make revisions per year to update their information. A change in information
is a change which does not require review of laboratory accreditation documents,
such as scope or test methods. Examples of revised information include
changes in the website URL, name of the laboratory, and name of point of
contact.
The total burden, therefore, is 332.5 hours, which we will round up to 333 hours.
We estimate that hourly compensation for the time required for recordkeeping is
$34.61 per hour (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Employer Costs for Employee
Compensation (ECEC)”, Table 9: total compensation for sales, office, and
related workers in goods-producing industries, March 2019, public database url:
https://www.bls.gov/ect/data.htm). The total cost burden to the respondents is
4

approximately $11,525 ($34.61 x 333 hours ≈ $11,525).
13.

Estimate of other total annual cost burden to respondents or
recordkeepers
There are no costs to respondents beyond those presented in Section A.12.
There are other no operating, maintenance, or capital costs associated with this
collection.

14.

Estimate of annualized cost to the federal government
Each of the 291 annual submissions will require review by a CPSC staff member
in addition to a review of updated information from the three laboratories. The
review of the application includes a thorough review of the accreditation
certificate and scope documents provided by the laboratory to ensure among
other things that the accreditations are current, are to the ISO 17025:2005
standard, and include the appropriate test methods. In most cases, the updated
information involves changes in phone numbers or contact person. Altogether,
the estimated time to review the laboratory accreditation certificate and scope
documents and updated laboratory information is two hours. This estimate uses
an hourly compensation rate of $66.53 per hour (the equivalent of a GS-12 Step
5 employee) that includes 31.7 percent added for benefits ( U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics, “Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, Table 1:
percentage of wages and salaries for all civilian management, professional, and
related employees”, Effective January 2019). Therefore, the annualized cost to
the federal government is estimated at $38,720.46 (291 submissions x 2 hours
x $66.53).

15.

Program Changes or Adjustments
There are no program changes or adjustments

16.

Plans for tabulation and publication
Information collected under this requirement will not be published.

17.

Exemption for Display of Expiration Date
The agency does not seek an exemption from displaying the expiration date.

18.

Exemption to Certification Statement
Not applicable.
5

B. Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods
Not applicable.

6