§ Mr. Wigleyasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) if he will publish in the Official Report the definition of the term nightwear to which his Department was working when it published its guidelines "Nightwear and Fire" recently;
(2) on what date it was decided to include in the Nightwear (Safety) Regulations 1985 babies garments other than nightwear; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HowardRegulation 3(1) of the Nightwear (Safety) Regulations 1985 provides that the meaning of "nightwear" extends also to other garments such as bath robes and includes babies garments. The regulations define "baby's garment" to mean any garment with a chest measurement not exceeding 53 cm which would normally be worn only by a child under the age of 3 months.
The decision to include babies garments was taken after considering the response to consultations on proposals for regulations in the period November 1984 to January 1985. The definition includes all babies garments (with a chest measurement) since it is not possible to distinguish between garments worn by a young baby during the day or night.
The draft regulations, which were laid before Parliament in November 1985 and approved by a resolution of each House, provided that all such babies garments should carry a label showing whether or not they are capable of meeting the new flammability standard. The regulations were made on 20 December 1985 and come into effect on 1 March 1987, which allowed a 15-month period for the trade to make the necessary adjustments.
The Department's "Nightwear and Fire" guide to the regulations, which was published on 25 September, has been widely distributed to the trade. Copies of the guide have been placed in the Library.