In the media

Television

BBC 'Have I Got News For You'

April 2026 – Our executive director, Peter Bennett OBE, caught up with the BBC News cost of living correspondent, Kevin Peachey, to discuss the issues we’re repeatedly seeing of unsafe ladders being sold by 3rd-party sellers via online marketplaces.

The attention-grabbing headline made it onto the BBC’s ‘Have I Got News For You’ comedy quiz show last Saturday night.

Watch us get name-checked on primetime Saturday night TV >

BBC 'Morning Live'

January 2025 – The Ladder Association featured on BBC Morning Live, highlighting the real and serious dangers of substandard imported telescopic ladders available for sale to UK consumers via online platforms.

The segment, part of our ongoing ‘Step Up to Safe Ladders’ campaign, saw us put 3 ladders we bought from Amazon and eBay to the test.

We found all 3 samples failed the strength tests before the full test load was applied. These ladders claimed to meet current product standard EN 131, but when tested during filming, did not meet the minimum safety requirements, posing serious risk to the user when used in real-life.

Watch part of the BBC Morning Live segment >

The segment was created by our testing partner, the Test & Research Centre, using footage from BBC Morning Live.

BBC 'The Wheel'

The Ladder Association previously featured in a question on BBC One’s Saturday primetime celebrity game show ‘The Wheel’.

Question: ‘According to the Ladder Association, if the top of a ladder is 4 metres up a wall, how far away from the wall should the base of the ladder be?’

Possible Answers: a) 1 metre b) 2 metres c) 3 metres d) 4 metres.

Kudos to the ladies Clara Amfo and Sindhu Vee for getting it right (1 metre!)

Press and news coverage

Which? leading consumer group

Featured in Which? investigation into potentially deadly items found on online marketplaces, with telescopic ladders being highlighted as one of the product groups.

Read the report >

Journal of Trading Standards

The Ladder Association was featured in the January 2026 edition of the Journal of Trading Standards.

The double-page spread highlights the positive work by the Ladder Association with our ‘Step Up to Safe Ladders’ campaign, the harm caused to people and legitimate businesses as a result of online platforms selling unsafe ladders, and the importance of continued market surveillance to remove these products from sale.

Read the article >