§ Mr. CryerTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will take action to ensure that the Textile Products (Indication of Fibre Content) Regulations are drawn to the attention of all carpet manufacturers in the United Kingdom to encourage conformity and avoidance of false labelling of carpets; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. AtkinsIn the light of the information currently available to me I do not consider any new initiative needs to be taken with United Kingdom manufacturers of carpets. The current principal regulations—the Textile Products (Indications of Fibre Content) Regulations 1986—were introduced in March 1986 and became legally binding on 29 May 1987. Wide publicity was given to these regulations, and to the explanatory guidelines "Fibre Content Labelling of Textiles", during 1986 by the British Carpet Manufacturers Association and by my Department. In enforcing these regulations, which apply to textile products generally, local authority trading standards departments undertake routine inspections and advisory visits at the point of manufacture. I have noted a recent report of the West Yorkshire trading standards126W service stating that none of the United Kingdom-manufactured carpet samples tested were found to have their wool content labelled incorrectly.