Selling Children's Toys at Craft Fairs: UK Regulations Explained

Is your product legally a toy?

Under the Toys (Safety) Regulations 2011, a toy is any product designed or intended, whether or not exclusively, for use in play by children under 14. Your intention matters less than you might hope: if a child could reasonably play with it, the law is likely to treat it as a toy.

That clearly covers knitted and crocheted animals, sewn dolls, teddy bears, fabric puppets, wooden toys and puzzles, rattles, and play sets. It also catches things makers often don't expect:

• Amigurumi and crocheted characters, even if you think of them as ornaments
• Craft kits where the finished item has play value
• Sensory and fidget items aimed at children
• Keyrings and bag charms shaped like toys, if a child could detach and play with them
• 3D printed figures and characters, which have their own extra considerations; see our 3D printing guide

Some things genuinely fall outside the regulations: items clearly made for adult collectors and marked as such, decorative pieces with no play value, and dolls' house miniatures aimed at adult hobbyists. But the bar is higher than most makers assume, and the test is what a child would foreseeably do with the item, not what your label says.

If you're unsure about a specific product, that uncertainty is worth taking seriously. Trading Standards apply a "play value" test, and a soft, colourful, huggable thing has play value almost by definition.

The myths that catch makers out

These four beliefs circulate constantly in craft groups, and all four are wrong.

"It's handmade, so the rules don't apply." There is no handmade exemption. The regulations apply to anyone placing a toy on the market, whether you make one a month at your kitchen table or ten thousand in a factory.

"I'll label it 'for decorative use only'." A disclaimer does not change what a product is. If the item has play value, labelling it as decorative does not exempt it, and Trading Standards can and do challenge this.

"I'll mark it 3+ to avoid the baby-safe tests." Soft toys must be suitable from birth by default. You cannot label your way out of the stricter under-36-month requirements unless the toy has a genuine feature that makes it unsuitable for babies.

"I only sell a few at local fairs, so nobody will check." Selling face to face at a fair counts as placing a toy on the market in exactly the same way as selling online. Trading Standards officers visit craft fairs and can make test purchases without identifying themselves. Toys are a priority enforcement area: in 2024 to 2025 they were the second most reported product category on the UK Product Safety Database.

What the law actually requires

Here's the full picture of what a compliant handmade toy involves. Each item is one part of a single process, and our UKCA self-certification guide covers how to do all of it step by step.

• 1. Safety testing to the EN71 standards: physical and mechanical tests (do the eyes pull off, do the seams hold), flammability tests, and chemical safety evidence for your materials. Most of this you can do at home; the chemical part comes from supplier certificates or shared test results.
• 2. A Technical File: your record of the product, its materials, your tests, and your risk assessment. Kept for 10 years.
• 3. A Declaration of Conformity: a formal document stating your toy meets the regulations. You write and sign this yourself.
• 4. The UKCA mark and label: every toy you sell carries the UKCA mark, your name and address, a batch number, and any required age warnings.

None of this needs a laboratory or a consultant for a typical soft or wooden toy. Self-certification is the route used by hundreds of small UK makers, and a first product typically costs £50 to £100 and a few days of focused work.

If you also sell into the EU or Northern Ireland, you'll need the CE mark for those markets. A valid CE mark is also recognised indefinitely for sales in Great Britain, though UKCA is the definitive GB marking.

What happens if you sell without it

Selling an unmarked toy is an offence, whether it happens at a stall or online. Trading Standards can issue advice, serve compliance notices, or seize products, and penalties can reach £5,000 per item, with imprisonment possible in serious cases. Just as importantly, a growing number of fair organisers now ask toy sellers to confirm UKCA compliance before accepting a booking, so an uncertified range increasingly means fewer places to sell.

If you're already selling toys without certification, the honest advice is to pause sales, complete the process, and then carry on. It's a genuine hurdle, but it's a jumpable one, and you only have to build the knowledge once.

Compliance and insurance are two different things

UKCA marking shows your toy meets safety law. It does not protect you financially if something goes wrong. That's the job of insurance: public liability for accidents at your stall, and product liability for harm caused by something you've sold. Most toy makers should have both, and many fair organisers require the first as a condition of booking.

Where to start

• 1. List your products and apply the play value test to each. Sort them into "clearly a toy", "clearly not", and "unsure". Treat "unsure" as "probably a toy" until you know otherwise.
• 2. Read our UKCA self-certification guide for the full testing and documentation process.
• 3. Gather your material evidence. Ask your suppliers for EN71-3 certificates, or look at cooperative testing through the UKCA & CE Marking Handmade Toys Collective.
• 4. Certify one product first. Your first Technical File is the slow one. Every design after that gets faster.