Mr. Ronald W. Brownasked the Secretary of State for Trade, following the deaths of 10 people in the recent fire in Woolworths of Manchester, when he proposes to introduce legislation to protect consumers from the dangers inherent in furniture containing polyurethane foam in the upholstery.
§ Mrs. Sally OppenheimI propose to make regulations under the Consumer Safety Act 1978 as soon as possible requiring all upholstered furniture supplied or offered for supply in the United Kingdom to be resistant to ignition from smokers' materials—cigarettes and matches.
In order to give the manufacturers time to modify their furniture where necessary, the regulations will, for a limited period, permit the supply of furniture not complying with this requirement if it bears a warning label indicating that it is ignitable by smokers' materials.
The length of the period during which warning labelling will be acceptable will be one of the matters to be determined in the light of consultations with interested parties which I propose to hold without delay.