Archived News Article
UK furniture fire safety regulations – revision process commences
The Office for Product Safety & Standards (OPSS), part of the UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) recently held two workshops to start the process of revising the furniture & Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations.
The Furniture Industry Research Association was present to represent the views of the UK furniture industry at the London workshop, which had attendance from a broad range of stakeholders from the industry, government and other NGOs.
OPSS outlined its aims of maintaining (or increasing) the current level of fire safety, whilst reducing, or removing the need for hazardous chemicals. The key areas discussed where:
- Background to how we got to the current situation
- The Government’s plans – a ‘new approach’ style regulation (similar to many EU CE marking directives) – with essential safety requirements (ESR) and the need for a risk assessment/technical file rather than test methods and requirements
- The proposed timescales for introduction of the regulations
- A discussion on what the ESR may be
- A discussion on labeling product regarding fire retardant content (for consumers and end of life);
- Feedback from the attendees on the positives and negatives of the proposals
- A presentation from the British Standards Institute on the potential to develop voluntary standards to support the regulations
It is expected that the revision process will continue with further meetings and workshops – FIRA will continue to keep members updated of developments.
Full members of the Furniture Industry Research Association can read a full meeting report, and view the presentation slides below.
If members have any feedback that they would like shared with OPSS, please forward this to Phil Reynolds, FIRA’s Technical Development Manager – preynolds@fira.co.uk
