Assistant general secretary Ben Selby explains why the union is pushing back against ministers’ plans to deregulate furniture safety
The FBU is sounding the alarm over ministers’ proposals to deregulate the furniture regulations, revoking longstanding mandatory tests to be replaced by so far unseen voluntary guidance.
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT), has recently consulted on proposals to scrap the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 and replace them with a far looser regime. The FBU opposes this watering down of legislation, which puts lives of the public and firefighter safety at risk.
The existing domestic furniture safety regulations include mandatory cigarette, match and crib tests. These have been in place since 1988. They were introduced after serious fires involving furniture, including the 1979 Woolworths fire in Manchester where 10 people died and six firefighters were injured.
The FBU campaigned for these regulations for decades.
The benefits of the Furniture and Furnishings Regulations have been evaluated by central government on several occasions. A University of Surrey evaluation concluded that around 70 lives a year were saved – about half of the fall in UK dwelling fire deaths over the same period.
Another study by Greenstreet Berman found that the furniture regulations saved 54 lives a year, 700 fewer casualties a year and a thousand fewer fires a year.
300 DEATHS OVER 10 YEARS
The government’s own evidence suggests that the risks from upholstered furniture remain.
It admits that “over the last 10 years there have been around 300 deaths relating to fire from domestic upholstered furniture”.
Ministers say there are new risks, such as lithium-ion batteries used in laptops, mobile phones, e-cigarettes, electric bicycles and similar devices, which are not covered by these tests.
The simplest answer would be to retain existing tests and to develop new tests capable of assessing newly emerging risks before products are placed on the market and sold to consumers.
The government admits it plans to replace mandatory with voluntary standards
Yet ministers make no proposals for such tests. Instead, they simply denounce the old cigarette and match tests as “outdated” and then propose to scrap them in favour of voluntary guidance.
The government wants to “revoke and replace” the Furniture and Furnishings Regulations. It proposes repeal of the existing regulations and their mandatory requirements for testing and other provisions. It admits it plans to “replace mandatory standards with voluntary standards”.
The proposals replace safety tests mandated by law with “essential safety requirements”. Although these would be set in statute, the testing arrangements are not laid down in law. Instead, tests would be voluntary under non-statutory British Standards Institution guidance, at the whim of manufacturers.
Although the consultation document talks about standards, it makes plain that these are not yet in place and, in any case, would be merely voluntary.
This would mean a weaker fire safety regime than the status quo. To “anticipate” BSI standards means that they have not yet been approved. No draft BSI standards relating to this change in regulations have been shared with the FBU.
There are no guarantees that ministers will designate in the future. This leaves fire safety in a far more precarious position.
FLAME RETARDANTS
Ministers claim they are introducing the new regime to reduce the use of chemical flame retardants in furniture.
There is longstanding evidence that flame retardants give off toxic fumes when burned, which can harm or kill residents and firefighters.
The Furniture and Furnishings Regulations do not stipulate the use of flame retardants. Rather, flame retardants were used by furniture manufacturers as the most cost-effective means (for them) to meet the requirements of the regulations.
This point was made in previous consultations in 2014 and 2016. It was also acknowledged in the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee’s report, Toxic Chemicals in Everyday Life (2019).
The FBU works closely with the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and accepts the strong evidence of smoke toxicity from certain flame retardants. The union’s DECON campaign demands measures to tackle hazardous substances.
However, the Westminster proposals do not guarantee the elimination of toxic flame retardants. They do not lay down a new toxicity test, which could determine whether the substances used in furniture pass or fail.
In fact, the draft regulations actually licence the use of flame retardants, if the manufacturer deems it is not “practicable” to remove them.
If the Westminster government wanted to tackle flame retardants, it would prohibit their use. There are already precedents. Deca-BDE was widely used as a flame retardant in UK furniture. It was banned in March 2019.
The FBU has made a submission to the consultation, strongly rejecting ministers’ proposals. Instead of learning from the failure of deregulation, ministers seem set on continuing with the same mistakes. Their proposals would revoke successful regulation and replace it with a regime of voluntary guidance. Ministers must stop and think again.
■ The FBU submission can be viewed at bit.ly/ FBU-furniture-regs
